Academic with fellowship cannot land a permanent position in her department. Should she stay or move elsewhere? My PhD supervisor who I consider a friend is hoping to get a foothold on the academic ladder at a presitgious univeristy in the UK. She's held a fellowship for several years now and has a few more to go before it runs out. During this time she managed to build a pretty sizeable research group, is teaching her own course to good feedback and her publication record is on par with, if not better than, other junior academics recently employed by her department. However, despite applying for several junior vacancies at her department where she wants to stay, she hasn't come close to getting one. I can't think of many reasons why other than perhaps her field is not considered sexy enough and the department wants to get rid of it altogether.

I want to bring this up next time I see her. It seems it would make sense for her to jump ship and land a position elsewhere while she still holds the fellowship as I'm sure many other departments elsewhere would be glad to have her. On the other hand that's a bit unfair to her students and it may split the research group. If only a hendful of people agree to go with her, this also means that it would take her a while to get back on her feet after the move. Has anyone been in a similar situation and has any advice? Are there other less obvious reasons why a university would snub someone with a good track record who's bringing funding to the table?
Universities in the West are generally quite reluctant to hire anyone into permanent positions who had been graduate students or postdocs or otherwise temporary employees at that same university. This is fundamentally based on the idea that we don't want "inbreeding" of ideas and that it benefits departments and universities to get in people with other perspectives. As a consequence, there may not be merit-based reasons why she isn't hired -- it may all be due to not wanting to hire your own disciples.

The solution is of course to go elsewhere -- as almost all of us had to do at some point. Everyone understands that to be the system, and students need to know it as well. In many cases, one can make practical arrangements where students come along, or where someone who leaves can still advise students at their old university until they are graduated. (I have done both.)