5 ms·

This just seems bizarre to me. How can state funded schools compete for good professors with rich private schools?

by aianus 12y ago

Swizec 12y ago
Professors in state funded schools get enough free time to run businesses on the side. They also get access to grant money. Also there's the prestige involved with being part of a University with 100+ years of tradition versus a college with 20 years of tradition at best.
Tomte 12y ago
In Germany the "rich" private schools are almost exclusively business schools. So it's only an option for you, if you're a professor of economics or finance, not if you're a physicist or a philosopher. Well, I think there is one highly esteemed journalism school (not a university, but run by large media companies) and a pretty good law school. (Interestingly enough all those "rich" private business schools here fail after a few years because they run out of money -- not without taking quite a bit of taxpayer's money trying to save them.)
jadyoyster 12y ago
The private schools don't care about having good academics, just about making money. Good professors want to be associated with the trusted and traditional publicly funded universities.
- szatkus 12y ago
  Excactly, "clients" would complain if getting a degree was too hard.
pjc50 12y ago
Nobody becomes a professor for the money.
- yulaow 12y ago
  Except those who want money and see being a professor as the means and not the purpose. And those are usually VERY bad professors.
- aianus 12y ago
  I didn't become a software engineer for the money, either. But if someone offered me twice the money to do the same thing, I'd move.
  - 6d0debc071 12y ago
    Sure, but it's not clear you'd be doing exactly the same thing. I imagine teaching in an institution that's trying to retain its students so that they can suck more money out of them vs teaching in an institution that has that as less of a concern could be quite different.
gambiting 12y ago
Same here in Poland. Only the free universities are the good ones. Any paid-for private university is immediately considered worse and is very unlikely to result in a good job. All top 100 universities in the country are completely free. And like the commenter above said - private universities will push through 90% of their students, so the degrees they get are worth close to nothing,no matter how much they paid. Meanwhile, the most prestigious schools in the country lose over 50% of the students in the first year because requirements are so high,and because they are not afraid of letting people go(they are not paying, so they are not entitled to anything). Out of 200 people signing up for an engineering course,only 20-30 people will actually graduate(and those engineers are sought after by every company in the country,because they are guaranteed to be good).
- doctorKrieger 12y ago
  oh you must be joking, i'm graduating from top1 polish university and even the professors are saying the quality of education is piss poor -but well whan can you expect when the TA's are getting paid around 1500 zloty (500$) and the professors are grabbing ~4000zloty (a bit more than 1000$). But there are parts in which you are right - the graduation rate is 30% and the quality of education in paid unis is even worse. And no we're not sought after in the country because we tend to leave it.
  - Paul_S 12y ago
    The problem with leaving the country is that your very good degree is now almost worthless. I got mine (from a good technical uni) issued in English, I even wrote my thesis in English. Not a single employer wanted to look at it. Yet, I earn the same as my colleague with a PhD from a local uni. Turns out no one cares about degrees in software engineering. Maybe it's different in your industry.
    - ceejayoz 12y ago
      Software engineering is probably one of the specialties better suited for an apprenticeship-style program rather than a degree-based one.
bayesianhorse 12y ago
Because, for one thing, the private schools aren't richer. And for another, the best teachers in advanced and specialized subject are academic researchers who prefer proven institutions over newer, profit-oriented institutions. Running private schools is difficult, and I know of several cases where German private schools are causing all sorts of grief to paying students.
rsynnott 12y ago
In Ireland, for instance, the rich third level institutions are the state ones; they get reasonable funding from the state, they have donations, they have intellectual property license fees, and so forth. The private ones are mostly targeted at people who can't get into their preferred course at a proper university (the private ones are normally not universities themselves), so they're smallish, and addressing a small market. In particular, they typically do no research.

This just seems bizarre to me. How can state funded schools compete for good professors with rich private schools?

by aianus 12y ago

This just seems bizarre to me. How can state funded schools compete for good professors with rich private schools?

Professors in state funded schools get enough free time to run businesses on the side. They also get access to grant money. Also there's the prestige involved with being part of a University with 100+ years of tradition versus a college with 20 years of tradition at best.

Tomte 12y ago

In Germany the "rich" private schools are almost exclusively business schools. So it's only an option for you, if you're a professor of economics or finance, not if you're a physicist or a philosopher. Well, I think there is one highly esteemed journalism school (not a university, but run by large media companies) and a pretty good law school. (Interestingly enough all those "rich" private business schools here fail after a few years because they run out of money -- not without taking quite a bit of taxpayer's money trying to save them.)

jadyoyster 12y ago

The private schools don't care about having good academics, just about making money. Good professors want to be associated with the trusted and traditional publicly funded universities.

szatkus 12y ago
Excactly, "clients" would complain if getting a degree was too hard.

pjc50 12y ago

Nobody becomes a professor for the money.

yulaow 12y ago
Except those who want money and see being a professor as the means and not the purpose. And those are usually VERY bad professors.
aianus 12y ago
I didn't become a software engineer for the money, either. But if someone offered me twice the money to do the same thing, I'd move.
- 6d0debc071 12y ago
  Sure, but it's not clear you'd be doing exactly the same thing. I imagine teaching in an institution that's trying to retain its students so that they can suck more money out of them vs teaching in an institution that has that as less of a concern could be quite different.

gambiting 12y ago

Same here in Poland. Only the free universities are the good ones. Any paid-for private university is immediately considered worse and is very unlikely to result in a good job. All top 100 universities in the country are completely free. And like the commenter above said - private universities will push through 90% of their students, so the degrees they get are worth close to nothing,no matter how much they paid. Meanwhile, the most prestigious schools in the country lose over 50% of the students in the first year because requirements are so high,and because they are not afraid of letting people go(they are not paying, so they are not entitled to anything). Out of 200 people signing up for an engineering course,only 20-30 people will actually graduate(and those engineers are sought after by every company in the country,because they are guaranteed to be good).

doctorKrieger 12y ago
oh you must be joking, i'm graduating from top1 polish university and even the professors are saying the quality of education is piss poor -but well whan can you expect when the TA's are getting paid around 1500 zloty (500$) and the professors are grabbing ~4000zloty (a bit more than 1000$). But there are parts in which you are right - the graduation rate is 30% and the quality of education in paid unis is even worse. And no we're not sought after in the country because we tend to leave it.
- Paul_S 12y ago
  The problem with leaving the country is that your very good degree is now almost worthless. I got mine (from a good technical uni) issued in English, I even wrote my thesis in English. Not a single employer wanted to look at it. Yet, I earn the same as my colleague with a PhD from a local uni. Turns out no one cares about degrees in software engineering. Maybe it's different in your industry.
  - ceejayoz 12y ago
    Software engineering is probably one of the specialties better suited for an apprenticeship-style program rather than a degree-based one.

bayesianhorse 12y ago

Because, for one thing, the private schools aren't richer. And for another, the best teachers in advanced and specialized subject are academic researchers who prefer proven institutions over newer, profit-oriented institutions. Running private schools is difficult, and I know of several cases where German private schools are causing all sorts of grief to paying students.

rsynnott 12y ago

In Ireland, for instance, the rich third level institutions are the state ones; they get reasonable funding from the state, they have donations, they have intellectual property license fees, and so forth. The private ones are mostly targeted at people who can't get into their preferred course at a proper university (the private ones are normally not universities themselves), so they're smallish, and addressing a small market. In particular, they typically do no research.