Professorial lecturer

Professorial Lecturer is the title for Professors of Practice and Teaching Faculty at certain universities and institutions that focus on practice-based education. This title is usually reserved for practice-based professors who are nationally or internationally recognized experts and leaders in their respective fields with extensive real-world experience. In the United States, this title is predominantly used in the Washington, D.C. region where practitioners with distinguished careers and expertise at the federal, local, and state governments, including international governance organisations, and other international institutions such as PAHO and the World Bank, are brought in by schools to teach and share their applied knowledge, experience, and deep expertise in theory-to-practice translation.

The title has its roots in the Commonwealth System of faculty ranking and is equivalent to an Associate Professor in the North American System. Professorial lecturers are frequently considered equivalent to a tenured associate professor as highlighted by American University's guidelines in this instance: "A term faculty at the rank of professorial lecturer with an exceptional research portfolio that is equivalent to that of a tenure-line colleague may be promoted to associate professor following the guidelines established in the Faculty Manual (May 2018). Term faculty at the rank of professorial lecturer may not change their rank to assistant professor."

Usage

Institutions using this title for Teaching Faculty include:

• London School of Economics
• George Washington University
• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• School of International Service at American University

Currently, at the London School of Economics, this title is being given to those working full time and of professor status, but no longer producing research, instead solely focusing on student education.