Junior Research Fellowships

For the fellowship in India, see Junior Research Fellowship.

A Junior Research Fellowship (JRF), sometimes known as a Research Fellowship or Fellow by Examination, is a postdoctoral fellowship for early-career scholars and recent PhD/DPhil graduates at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. JRFs are among the most highly competitive, prestigious postdoctoral fellowships in the United Kingdom.^[1][2][3] The fellowships are also seen as direct pathways to tenure-track positions.^[4][5]

University of Oxford

The Bodleian Library
Motto	Latin: Dominus illuminatio mea
Type	Public research university
Established	1096
Location	Oxford , England 51°45′18″N 01°15′18″W / 51.75500°N 1.25500°W / 51.75500; -1.25500

History

Initially, the term research fellow referred to a junior researcher, who worked on a specific project on a temporary basis. They tended to be paid either from central university funds or by an outside organisation such as a charity or company, or through an external grant-awarding body such as a research council or a royal society, for example in the Royal Society University Research Fellowship.^[6] They were often reserved for unmarried researchers, although this prohibition was lifted in the mid-nineteenth-century reforms.

During and after the First World War, Oxbridge colleges instituted more reforms to their research programs. The number of overall researchers at Oxford increased from 100 in 1909 to 1,071 in 1919.^[7] At Balliol College, Oxford, JRFs were allowed to sit on the college's governing body, which were responsible for central decision making.^[8]

In the postwar years, British universities began to invest more resources into junior research fellowships.^[9] Nearly half of JRF stipends come from the central university, rather than the individual colleges.^[10] New JRF appointments became part of the research career track, in contrast to the teaching career track.

Benefits

Colleges may award junior research fellowships as the equivalent of post-doctoral research posts, lasting for three or four years. JRFs offer full funding, usually with additional privileges, such as free or subsidized housing and dining rights in college.^[11] Additional benefits include access to campus facilities, private gardens, and access to common rooms.^[12] They do not have any teaching or administrative requirements, although some JRFs allow students to sit on their college's governing body and teach undergraduate tutorials. Unlike other postdoctoral positions in the UK, JRFs are not tied to a specific project or department, and students as a result are allowed to pursue their own independent research projects.^[13][14] For this reason, they are often the most coveted postdoctoral positions in the UK.

JRF posts may be advertised as general or field-specific.^[15][16] They are available for postdoctoral researchers in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering.

JRFs are one type of postdoctoral fellowship at Oxbridge. Others include the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships, the Leverhulme Fellowships and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships. Postdoctoral associates (as opposed to postdoctoral fellows) are another type of post, which are tied to a specific research project and usually funded by an external agency. Generally, these fellowships are together referred to as early career fellowships.^[17]

Elections

University of Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge
Motto	Latin: Hinc lucem et pocula sacra
Type	Public research university
Established	1209
Location	Cambridge , England

JRF selection committees prioritize applicants with high research potential and prepare them for tenure-track positions. They generally receive applications from final-year PhD students and recent graduates. Each Oxbridge college organizes its own JRF advertisements, interviews, and offers. The application process requires preparing a package that may include a covering letter, a writing sample, recommendation letters and/or a curriculum vitae. Applicants who are long-listed are invited to submit other materials, such as additional writing samples, while those who are short-listed are invited to interview. JRF interviews are known for being notoriously difficult and intense.^[18][19][20] A single JRF job post may receive several hundred applicants.^[21][22]

Successful applicants are elected to serve as fellows with full college benefits. They are inducted in a ceremony to mark their admission as new fellows.^[23] The ceremony is conducted by a praelector who is a senior fellow of the college.^[24]

Outside Oxbridge

In recent years other universities, including the University of Warwick and the University of Vienna, have created similar JRF positions.^[25][26] In continental Europe, JRFs are often tied to a specific project.^[27]

Public perceptions

JRFs have been criticized for being exclusionary and discriminating against students who did not attend an Oxbridge college. Many have noted the class-based discrimination that occurs throughout the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.^[28] JRF holders are also described as being predominantly male, although some colleges have in recent years reported having a majority of female JRFs.^[29]

See also

• Academic ranks in the United Kingdom
• Research fellow

References

1. "Planning a career as a postdoctoral researcher". BU Research.
2. Tapper, Ted; Palfreyman, David (2010). Oxford, the Collegiate University: Conflict, Consensus and Continuity. Springer. p. 159.
3. "Junior Research Fellowships (JRFs)". University of Cambridge.
4. Evans, Richard J. (2009). Cosmopolitan Islanders: British Historians and the European Continent. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 154.
5. Tooze, Adam. "Twitter". Twitter.
6. Anon (2017). . royalsociety.org. Archived from the original on 2016-02-03.
7. Brockliss, L.W.B. (2016). Towards the Research University (The University of Oxford: A History ed.). Oxford University Press.
8. Jones, John (1997). Balliol College: A History, Second Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 275.
9. Harrison, Brian (1994). The History of the University of Oxford: Volume VIII: The Twentieth Century. Clarendon Press. p. 212.
10. Nicholls, C. (2000). The History of St Antony's College, Oxford, 1950–2000. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 183.
11. "Oxbridge College Fellowships (JRFs)". The London School of Economics.
12. Williams, Paul (2020). "Steve Collins — Valediction For A Friend". Buddhist Studies Review. 37 (2): 147–150.
13. Hosni, Hykel (September 2022). "Interview with Luca Incurvati". The Reasoner. 16 (6): 47.
14. Harvey, Charles. "Philanthropy and the sustaining of global elite university domination" (PDF). EPrints NCL.
15. Young, Toby. "Some (tentative) reasons to be cheerful in 2022". The Spectator.
16. "Early Career Historians". Royal Historical Society.
17. "Early Career Researchers". University of Cambridge.
18. Grafton, Anthony; Sullivan, Jr, Garrett A.; Semenza, Greg Colón (2015). How to Build a Life in the Humanities: Meditations on the Academic Work-Life Balance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
19. Merton College. "The Junior Research Fellowship selection committee and application process". Apple Podcasts.
20. Somerville College. "Report on Junior Research Fellowships". Issuu.
21. "'Hundreds chase every junior academic job'". BBC.
22. "Getting a 'Post-Doc': How Is It Even Possible?!". Royal Musical Association.
23. "JRF: Further Particulars". Trinity College Cambridge.
24. "Admission of new Fellows". Queens' College, Cambridge.
25. "Junior Research Fellows". Erwin Schrödinger Institute.
26. "Warwick joins fellowship elite". Times Higher Education.
27. "Lichtenberg-Kolleg Junior Research Fellowships". University-Based Institutes for Advanced Study.
28. Forsyth, Alasdair; Furlong, Andy (2013). "Access to Higher Education and Disadvantaged Young People". British Educational Research Journal. 29 (2): 205–225. doi:10.1080/0141192032000060948.
29. Ahlburg, Dennis A.; McCall, Brian P. (2020). "A very English revolution: the impacts of co-residence at the University of Oxford". History of Education. 49 (5): 697. doi:10.1080/0046760X.2020.1752821. S2CID 219445748.