Re:My students have paid £9,000 and now they think they own me
by Overtonwindow on Monday December 21, 2015 @09:43AM
(#10771248)
Excellent response. I went back to university for fun recently at a major research institution. I found that the administration wanted more money, and professors wanted to teach less and research more. Students bristled at the belief that a professors primary job is not to teach, but to research, while the administration continued to raise prices, and add pointless classes; do we REALLY need a 4 hour taught by a GTA lab twice a week on research methods in psychology?
Re:My students have paid £9,000 and now they think they own me
by galfarragem on Friday December 18, 2015 @11:41AM
(#10759330)
Clearly the less biased analysis in this thread. Thank you.
tl;dr: Administration, students and professors are under high pressure and reacting accordingly.
Administrators want to grow the school budget and increase prestige for themselves and the university. Professors want to do research and make an impact in their field, and to their peers. Students want to be able to get a job and have an interesting experience.
In theory all three groups should have as a primary goal the expansion of the circle of knowledge [1] at some level. Administrators by providing a space for professors and students to do that, professors by partly focusing on students' needs and partly by having separate research periods and Students by expanding their own circles.
Reality is, it's all about money, just like everything else. Each group is trying to get the most of it so they can do what they want individually. Everyone is a customer in this scenario.
[1]http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/