Senior appointments at all properly constituted Universities are of life tenure—­nominally until the age of sixty-five, though probably earlier retirement will be made possible.  They are made by the Council, which usually entrusts the election either to the Senate or to a committee, on which are representatives of both the Council and the Senate.  Unfortunately this procedure is not universal, and the teachers are not invariably consulted in their official capacity.  Junior appointments, while subject to ratification by the Council, are usually made in the first instance by the head of the department concerned, usually, but not invariably, after consultation with the Dean of the Faculty or the Vice-Chancellor.  They are sometimes of three years’ tenure with or without possible extension, sometimes subject merely to terminal notice on either side.

In the last four or five years contributory pension schemes for the professorial body and for permanent assistants in receipt of a specified income (usually L250 or L200 and upwards) have been compulsorily established at all British Universities in receipt of a Government grant.  In June 1913, the Advisory Committee on the Distribution of Exchequer Grants to Universities and University Colleges laid on the table of the House of Commons a scheme which came into force on 29th September, and is compulsory on every member of the staff entering a University after that date at a salary of L300 or upwards.  Members appointed at salaries of between L200 and L300 have the option of joining the scheme, while those appointed at salaries of between L160 and L200 may join with the consent of the institution.  Members of existing schemes are entitled to join under similar conditions.  Special facilities are given for the transference of policies from one University to another, since the view is taken that the teachers in all the Universities constitute a profession comparable with the Civil Service, and that transference from one University to another should not be accompanied by a financial penalty any more than is transference from one Government office to another.

A competent girl who can bide her time can usually get a footing in some University.  Her future advancement will depend on her value to the institution, on her original writing and research even more than on her teaching, work on committees and influence with the students.  Largely, too, it will depend on her tact and popularity with her colleagues:  to a very considerable extent it still rests also on conditions over which she has no control, and which are part and parcel of the slow recognition of a woman’s right to compete on equal terms with men.