3 ms·
I suppose a root cause of sorts is that for the first time in millennia there is a surplus of ambitious people with the means to pay for education, but a shorta
by rich_sasha 2y ago
I suppose a root cause of sorts is that for the first time in millennia there is a surplus of ambitious people with the means to pay for education, but a shortage of adequate warm bodies to teach. This in turn means top universities can provide a low quality course taught by outsourced teachers and know it will sell regardless.
I'm not sure how you fix it. There's only so many people who are smart and want to teach. It doesn't help that teaching doesn't pay well, but paying more only sort of helps: there would be a greater supply of teachers, but surely paying more can't make it cheaper.
- goldfishgold 2y agoNot sure about this. Generally there’s a line out the door of highly qualified people to teach at places like Caltech for little or nothing. A few years ago, UCLA tried to hire someone to teach a chemistry course as a volunteer position. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/21/ucla-criticized-advertising-adjunct-job-without-pay https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/21/ucla-criticiz...
- rich_sasha 2y agoSure, but somehow these people aren't teaching, one way or the other. Maybe it's not a shortage of able people (in fact you're right, it definitely isn't) but they aren't teaching at top universities. Or there isn't enough of these teachers.
- underlipton 2y agoPeople who feel comfortable and safe exploring topics govern their own learning, especially when there's a small but healthy amount of peer and supervisory pressure. So, don't pay a small army of adjuncts. Pay students to show up to a classroom and to complete standardized measures of progression.