下面做壹個比較：
英制 —— 美制
Senior Lecturer 高級講師-----Associate Professor 副教授
Lecturer 講師 ---------------Assistant Professor 助理教授
可以知道級別高於講師而低於副教授，
Assistant professor: Once a senior teaching assistant obtains a doctorate, s/he is hired as an assistant professor, and receives tenureship. Assistant professors duties include delivering lectures, supervising graduation projects, master theses, and doctorate dissertations.
Associate professor: After at least five years, an assistant professor can apply for a promotion to the rank of associate professor. The decision is based on the scholarly contributions of the applicant, in terms of publications and theses and dissertations supervised.
值得壹提的是助理教授，
例如有的學校長期雇傭未拿到PHD的ABD（ All But Dissertation）。在他們正式畢業前以Lecturer/Instructor稱之，答辯後改稱Assistant Professor。壹般工作合同每年三四月敲定，答辯則在五至八月，難保絕對通過，有學校合同上就寫Assistant Professor。assistant professor只是壹個校內職務，和他的招生資格沒有直接聯系。所以，如果他在校內是碩導的話，就可以帶研究生。Associate professor可以帶碩士和博士的。