Everything about Fellow totally explained
A
fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. Historically, the term fellow was also used to describe a
man, particularly by those in the upper social classes. Nowadays, it's most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who work together as peers in the pursuit of knowledge or practice.
Academia
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote an academic research position at a university or similar institution.
Emeritus title in the UK
The title fellow might be given to an academic member of staff upon retirement who continues to be affiliate to a university institution in the United Kingdom.
Oxford, Cambridge, and other Colleges
At
Colleges of the Universities of
Oxford and
Cambridge, and
Trinity College, Dublin, full fellows form the
governing body of the College, although they may elect a Council to handle day-to-day management. All fellows are entitled to certain privileges within their College, which may include dining at
High Table (free of charge) and possibly the right to a room in College (free of charge).
There are a number of types of fellow:
- Research fellows are researchers, whose salaries or stipends are paid by a College from the income of its endowment. Some of the less affluent Colleges don't pay their research fellows a salary, instead award fellowships to researchers already employed by the University.
- At Oxford, college tutors are fellows, who are paid to provide small-group teaching to a college's undergraduates. The position is typically a joint appointment (there are a variety of types) with the University.
- At Cambridge, teaching officers (lecturers, readers, and professors) are entitled to a college fellowships. For lecturers and readers, the process is competitive – generally the most able academics get fellowships at the richest and most prestigious Colleges. Professors are allocated to Colleges by a centralised process to ensure fairness. These fellows may or may not provide small-group teaching to undergraduates in the College, for which they'd be paid by the hour. College fellows at Cambridge (except for research fellows) have no duties as such and are not paid. They will typically have a salaried post either with their College or the University.
- At Cambridge, a praelector is a fellow of a college, who formally presents students during the matriculation and graduation ceremony.
Most Cambridge Colleges grant fellowships for life after a qualifying period. Retired academics may therefore remain as fellows. In Oxford on retirement a Governing Body fellow would normally be elected a 'fellow emeritus' and would leave the Governing Body. Distinguished old members of the college, or its benefactors and friends might also be elected 'Honorary Fellow', normally for life; but beyond limited dining rights this is merely an honour. Most Oxford Colleges have 'Fellows by Special Election' or 'Supernumerary Fellows' who may be members of the teaching staff, but not necessarily members of the Governing Body.
US Medical Training
In US medical institutions, a fellow refers to someone who has completed residency training (for example in internal medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, etc.) and is currently in a 1 to 3 year subspecialty training program (for example cardiology, pediatric nephrology, transplant surgery, etc.).
Graduate school fellowships
In the context of
graduate school in the
United States and
Canada, a fellow is a recipients of a
fellowship. Examples are the
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship,
Guggenheim Fellowship, and the
Presidential Management Fellowship.
Academia administration
Harvard University
At Harvard and some other universities in the United States, "fellows" are members of the
Board of Trustees who hold administrative positions as non-executive trustee rather than academics.
Cambridge and Oxford Colleges
Some senior administrators of a college such as
bursars are made fellows, and thereby become members of the governing body, because of their importance to the running of a College.
Secondary Education
Teaching fellows in the US
The term used, in the United States, the high school and middle school setting for students or adults that assist a teacher with one or more classes .
Learned or professional societies
Fellows are the highest grade of membership of most
professional societies (see for example, the
Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Lower grades are referred to as members (who typically share voting rights with the fellows), or associates (who may or may not, depending on whether "associate" status is a form of full membership).
How a fellowship is acquired varies for each society, but may typically involves some or all of these:
A qualifying period in a lower grade
Nomination by two existing fellows who know the applicant professionally
Evidence of continued formal training post-qualification
Evidence of substantial achievement in the subject area
Submission of a thesis or portfolio of works which will be examined
Exclusive learned societies such as the Royal Society have Fellow as the only grade of membership, others like the Faculty of Young Musicians (now defunct) have members holding the post of Associate and posts Honoris Causa.
Industry
Large corporations in research and development-intensive industries (IBM or Sun Microsystems in information technology, and Boston Scientific in Medical Devices for example) appoint a small number of senior scientists and engineers as fellows. Fellow is the most senior rank or title one can achieve on a technical career, though some fellows also hold business titles such as vice president or chief technology officer.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fellow'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://fellow.totallyexplained.com">Fellow Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
