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Then these overqualified research professors should not waste their time teaching and have this conflict of interest. They should be just mentoring the next ge

• claudius 13y ago
  > They should be just mentoring the next generation of research professors and doing their research, since that is where most of their money comes from anyway. That’s exactly what universities are intended to do: Educate the future researchers and front-edge users of a particular field. For the more practically oriented, there are universities of applied sciences (the difference in naming is much more obvious in German: Universität ./. Fachhochschule) and even the dual education system with its trade schools. The idea that every lowly programmer who wants to learn ‘just enough maths’ should go to university is – IMHO – frankly bullshit.
• fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  >Then these overqualified research professors should not waste their time teaching and have this conflict of interest. They should be just mentoring the next generation of research professors and doing their research, since that is where most of their money comes from anyway. That's just not the way research works. I've gotten far superior instruction in math for example from dedicated instructors at community colleges than I ever got at my university. 30 people sized classes vs 300 sized and it was almost half price. One of the best courses I've ever taken was a "300 sized" chemistry class. The lecturer was a master at lecturing, his classes filled almost immediately. He also put a lot of effort into meeting with students, despite having a dozen or so TA's to manage. >These community colleges are only devoted to teaching and generally they do just fine. I'm an instructor at a CC and I can tell you it is a mixed bag. Our math dept is weak.
  • mahyarm 13y ago
    How does research 'work' then? Of course you are going to get mixed bag results in any institution. Sometimes you will get research professors who are good instructors like your I'm guessing 300 person intro chemistry course, but the incentives lead to weaker instruction than a pure instructor. Especially in entry level courses. You get travesties such as people who have very thick accents and bad language skills teaching second year courses because it's a research university.
    • fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
      >How does research 'work' then? Well, often enough a prof may have several projects going. universities usually assign you classes to lecture based on how much research you have going on. It would be impossible to organize research activities on an ongoing constant basis for a department of researchers. Sometimes you have too much work sometimes not enough. >but the incentives lead to weaker instruction than a pure instructor. Especially in entry level courses. Yeah, I agree it isn't optimal. >You get travesties such as people who have very thick accents Oh, get over it. This is more urban legend than reality. Learn to work with people who aren't from your home town. > and bad language skills teaching second year courses because it's a research university. May be annoying for you if it isn't your field and you just need some science courses; but if you want to work with people who are doing interesting leading research in some field, there's a good chance you'll have to work with people who aren't native English speakers.
      • mahyarm 13y ago
        > Well, often enough a prof may have several projects going. universities usually assign you classes to lecture based on how much research you have going on. It would be impossible to organize research activities on an ongoing constant basis for a department of researchers. Sometimes you have too much work sometimes not enough. So it's filler work. > Oh, get over it. This is more urban legend than reality. Learn to work with people who aren't from your home town. > May be annoying for you if it isn't your field and you just need some science courses; I am talking from personal experience, not urban legend. It was the core operating systems / concurrency course. The person had marginal English language skills, and I've work many recent immigrants from his country who have far better accents and english language skills now. It was a common complaint on ratemyprofessor. It wasn't a minor difference such as a 1960s Boston or British accent. > but if you want to work with people who are doing interesting leading research in some field, there's a good chance you'll have to work with people who aren't native English speakers. I work with a probably %75 ESL workforce today, many of them recent ESL, and I went to an international high school. I work with many of them very well. It's still no excuse, especially in any public speaking engagement to not be able to communicate decently. You NEED your audience to be able to understand %95 of what your saying or you might as well just communicate in writing with them. You should be doing more back office work until its corrected.