How much do you charge / pay for a visiting lecturer?

[jnb]

If you have a visiting lecturer in to give a talk how much would you expect to pay? We're talking here about someone giving a series of lectures at a relatively high standard (A level kind of standard) accompanied by supporting notes and textbook. Essentially every attendee gets a digital copy of the accompanying textbook.

What sort of rates would you expect to pay?

[gabhar]

Not sure this is very helpful, because the answer is "it depends... "

Until recently, I was a university lecturer, and we paid guest lecturers a basic rate of about £60/hour.  However, it's a very movable feast because you have to decide how many hours you're going to pay for.  If someone was going to give a full course, there was a standard number of hours that exceeded the actual time spent giving the lectures, but took into account the time needed to prepare the materials etc.  If the lecture was a one-off, the number of hours paid was negotiable, and again would generally try to take into account things like preparation time, possibly even travelling time.

Is the textbook you mention something the person giving the lecture wrote (at least, owns the intellectual property rights to)?  If so, you need to consider what you are buying there - if every attendee gets a digital copy, will they then have the right to pass that on?  If not, will they be signing an acknowledgement that they won't?  If the lecturer is not the owner of the rights, do be aware of digital copyright issues, which can be a bit of a minefield.

 

[jnb]

9 hours ago, gabhar said:

Not sure this is very helpful, because the answer is "it depends... "

Until recently, I was a university lecturer, and we paid guest lecturers a basic rate of about £60/hour.  However, it's a very movable feast because you have to decide how many hours you're going to pay for.  If someone was going to give a full course, there was a standard number of hours that exceeded the actual time spent giving the lectures, but took into account the time needed to prepare the materials etc.  If the lecture was a one-off, the number of hours paid was negotiable, and again would generally try to take into account things like preparation time, possibly even travelling time.

Is the textbook you mention something the person giving the lecture wrote (at least, owns the intellectual property rights to)?  If so, you need to consider what you are buying there - if every attendee gets a digital copy, will they then have the right to pass that on?  If not, will they be signing an acknowledgement that they won't?  If the lecturer is not the owner of the rights, do be aware of digital copyright issues, which can be a bit of a minefield.

 

Well the full details are that it is a short course of six lectures on further astronomy. All pitched at an A level standard. The textbook is definitely something the person giving the lecture owns the IP to. I can be sure of that because the lecturer is me! To be honest I'm not too worried if they pass on the lecture notes as long as they remain acknowledged because the notes they are getting are very much a draft copy of a textbook - perfectly adequate as they stand but there will be a revision after this course.

 

[laudropb]

For many years I was a visiting Specialist Lecturer in one of the Glasgow universities. When I retired a few years ago I was getting paid £50 an hour. I had to have handouts showing all the illustrations, tables etc that I used, but these were prepared by myself and copies made by the university, so no property rights problem.

[LukeSkywatcher]

It depends,and i dont know. A few yrs ago Pete Lawrence was the key speaker at a star party i attended here in Ireland. Tickets cost about 28 euro per person (and that included free BBQ and tea/coffee/soft drinks all night). 

Pete's talk about the Sun and Northern Lights alone........worth every penny (only reason i went). Was introduced to him by a member of Astronomy Ireland,shook hands and had a short conversation with him (both being members of SGL).  Lovliest guy you could meet. Truth be known..........i got a bit star struck and tongue tied when meeting him. He did say however that he knew my SGL nic.

So, how much?.......

[gabhar]

18 hours ago, jnb said:

Well the full details are that it is a short course of six lectures on further astronomy. All pitched at an A level standard. The textbook is definitely something the person giving the lecture owns the IP to. I can be sure of that because the lecturer is me! To be honest I'm not too worried if they pass on the lecture notes as long as they remain acknowledged because the notes they are getting are very much a draft copy of a textbook - perfectly adequate as they stand but there will be a revision after this course.

 

I note laudropb gives a figure of £50/hour "a few years ago" which seems similar to my figure: I said about £60 but I think it's currently £57.  How long are the lectures?  If, say, you do an hour and get paid something like £55 for it, the reality is probably that you'd be working for under £20/hour taking into account travel and preparation, which isn't that much. 

[RichLD]

£50-60 per hour is what I have charged for audio engineering/production lecturing in a local college. The last course was part of a BTEC at level 4 if that helps.