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As someone who has planned on returning to grad school this fall to finish my PhD in computer science in hopes of becoming a professor at a teaching-oriented un

As someone who has planned on returning to grad school this fall to finish my PhD in computer science in hopes of becoming a professor at a teaching-oriented university, I am worried about the future of the occupation of being a university professor, particularly from the standpoint of being able to do research. One of the things I wonder about the post-COVID-19 world is what's going to happen to research as a career, whether it's in academia or in industry. In computer science I've noticed these two trends occurring in the past 30 years: 1. Industry has largely moved away from funding long-term blue-sky research, increasingly shifting toward short-term, product-driven research projects. We have moved from places like Bell Labs and Xerox PARC where researchers had a large degree of freedom to places like Google today where researchers are assigned to product teams (see the paper "Google's Hybrid Approach to Research" which describes how research at Google is operated: https://research.google/pubs/pub38149/ https://research.google/pubs/pub38149/). 2. Academia has its own challenges: (1) the competition for a professorship due to the fact there are more PhD graduates than there are professorships, (2) the competitive environment for obtaining research grants from the NSF, and (3) the increased reliance on adjunct faculty members, who don't have tenure. The economic effects of this COVID-19 pandemic will undoubtedly lead to universities reducing their hiring. Some universities may even face closure. The sudden shift to online teaching may also have permanent effects on the future of university education. I believe that there are many opportunities for students that will become available if online education becomes the new normal, especially if online education leads to reducing the cost of a university education, which is a serious problem in the United States given the student loan crisis. However, I'm concerned that a move toward online education will accelerate the trend of adjunctization occurring across academia and may even lead to the concept of tenure disappearing at all but the most competitive schools. I believe places like Stanford, MIT, and Harvard will emerge from the post-COVID-19 world just fine. I also believe that public research universities like UC Berkeley and University of Washington will emerge fine. But what about regional comprehensive universities such as the California State University system? What about small private universities that don't have the prestige of places like Caltech or Harvey Mudd? It's these types of universities that will face the most pressures to adapt to a world of compelling online educational choices. I'd like to still be able to pursue a career in research, ideally with autonomy and the ability to pursue long-term projects, but between the trends that have been occurring for the past 30 years as well as the challenges of a post-COVID-19 world, I might not be able to pursue such a career.

DeathArrow 7y ago
>1. Industry has largely moved away from funding long-term blue-sky research, increasingly shifting toward short-term, product-driven research projects. We have moved from places like Bell Labs and Xerox PARC where researchers had a large degree of freedom to places like Google today where researchers are assigned to product teams (see the paper "Google's Hybrid Approach to Research" which describes how research at Google is operated: https://research.google/pubs/pub38149/ https://research.google/pubs/pub38149/) Industry wants their money to produce other money fast. Maybe having the state sponsor long time research is a better thing to do. In some parts of Europe much of the research is sponsored by the state. I think that's true for China, too. As for online teaching, I don't think that can be as good as participating in person. Maybe the crisis will cut just the beaurocrats and live knowledgeable people to do their work.

DeathArrow 7y ago

>1. Industry has largely moved away from funding long-term blue-sky research, increasingly shifting toward short-term, product-driven research projects. We have moved from places like Bell Labs and Xerox PARC where researchers had a large degree of freedom to places like Google today where researchers are assigned to product teams (see the paper "Google's Hybrid Approach to Research" which describes how research at Google is operated: https://research.google/pubs/pub38149/ https://research.google/pubs/pub38149/) Industry wants their money to produce other money fast. Maybe having the state sponsor long time research is a better thing to do. In some parts of Europe much of the research is sponsored by the state. I think that's true for China, too. As for online teaching, I don't think that can be as good as participating in person. Maybe the crisis will cut just the beaurocrats and live knowledgeable people to do their work.