Universities are more about learning than teaching. The heavy focus on teaching, and the expectation that every class is taught, is large part of the reason why

Universities are more about learning than teaching. The heavy focus on teaching, and the expectation that every class is taught, is large part of the reason why American higher education is so expensive. During my undergrad, in a European public university poorly funded by American standards, seminar classes were the key for actually understanding the field. Students would read papers and other primary sources, give presentations and write papers based on them, and discuss what the others had done. The person in charge would usually be either an active researcher or a senior professor who had been active in the past.