The fact is that unless it's in the student's own field of research interest, it's far much profitable to the kids to be under the tutelage of a teacher rather than a researcher. Perhaps universities should offer independent research/study options to undergraduates in the same way they do for graduate students: describe your interests, create a plan of work, recruit a review committee (or for undergrads, perhaps just a single professor), and have at it. As a history major I had a couple of folks treat their own courses this way and by acting as a facilitator to self-discovery I learned far more than in traditional lectures. Standing out for me was Terry Belanger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Belanger), but he's something of a "Dijkstra" celebrity in the field of bibliophilia so ymmv. One of the options he gave students was to curate their own exhibit in the University of Virginia's most prominent display museum (the Dome Room of the http://www.virginia.edu/rotunda/), and this experience was one of themost impactful experiences in my college career. ... It also steered me away from public history and toward technology, and I'm glad that happened BEFORE I graduated than afterward.

So a XOR :-)

The AND professors I've had are some of the finest. I think I had 1, maybe 2.