As we all know, academic life involves research, teaching, involvement in wider national and international debates and, of course, career progression. The natural ebb and flow of department life, with new faces coming and old ones going on to new places are what keep work interesting and fresh. Often, as much as the academic challenges on offer, there is the excitement of upping sticks and moving to a new town or city and seeing your career blossom.
We all need to move occasionally to further – or indeed begin – our careers and, while it’s a slight distortion of the cliché, a move is often better than a rest. That’s why we want you to consider seriously the new posts available at The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture at RGU in Aberdeen.
As someone whose work is centred around the built environment, you know that people need more than just buildings. Of equal importance are the community, both academic and non-academic, the transport links, the price of housing, the educational facilities for children, the arts, cultural and leisure facilities and, yes, especially in the UK, the weather!
There has been a perception for many years that Aberdeen is an expensive place, far away from everywhere else, with the colder climate you would expect in the north of the country. Let’s examine these in a bit more detail.
Housing. We can’t pretend it’s not been expensive. The oil industry has driven up prices, and made Aberdeen rich. That wealth has a highly desirable side-effect though: it means that shopping, arts, leisure, etc. are all very well funded and the quality of facilities across the city is first-class. However, compared to many areas of the UK, it’s still possible to get very high quality housing, especially around Aberdeen, at a competitive price and, with the fall in the price of oil house prices are actually falling.
The other objection you might reasonably seem to have about a move to RGU in Aberdeen is the distance. We won’t tell you it’s not further away from most other places in the UK: it is. However, as the city developed to become Europe’s oil capital, it was essential that transport links became speedy and frequent. The airport is the fifth busiest in the UK and consequently, it’s no more difficult to get abroad (say for holidays) from Aberdeen than from any other region of Britain. Road, train and public transport are excellent and of high quality.
Arts, culture, leisure and education are also important factors for those considering a move anywhere. As noted above, the wealth of Aberdeen means that we are extremely well served when it comes to the first three, with excellent theatres, museums, galleries and other arts venues and performances. Education in the city is also first-class, with a wide range of excellent private and state schools.
Finally, and, we trust, the last piece of our argument to persuade you to make the move to The Scott Sutherland School, what about that great British staple of concerned debate, the weather? Well, believe it or not, the weather in Aberdeen is actually pretty warm and dry. In fact, Aberdeen is regularly named as the sunniest city in the UK (not just Scotland) and the driest region in Scotland is… the north-east.
OK, well that’s Aberdeen sorted. What about the School? If you are already in 
academia, you’ll know we’re one of the best places to study. You’ll also know that staff from the School are regularly involved at both national and European levels, including core membership and participation in the European Construction Technology Platform, the EU Smart Cities Stakeholder Platform and the World Energy Cities Partnership Academic Programme (WECAP). We could go on, however, for an introduction from the Head of the School, Professor David McClean, have a look at this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2epNE0qwlg
We have a number of interesting posts being advertised over the next few months. Keep an eye out at jobs.ac and we trust we’ve whetted your appetite sufficiently that you’ll want to find out more!