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Smart universities put emphasis on good teachers
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I refer to Wan Lixin’s article on the over-emphasis on research and publication of academic papers as the main route towards higher personal ranking and status in universities (“Published paper trail leads us nowhere,” December 31).
As an adjunct tutor in a local university some 20 years ago, I brought to classes my various consultancy and training experiences to share with small tutorial groups (16 students), whereas my full-time colleagues — who were principally research scholars — taught in the lecture auditoriums.
Two full-time peers had never worked outside the ivory towers and yet had to teach the marketing and management module, even though their interests were more on academic research. To be fair to them, they were the newest in the faculty and as a result they were told to teach this course with materials provided by the publisher. There was no attempt to equip them with the pedagogical skills to impart this knowledge.
On the other hand, a good friend, teaching at another faculty, was so enamored in imparting his area of expertise that he would come in over the weekend to polish up the slides and materials for the students. His interest was to make his mark in ensuring that the students understood what he was trying to impart. He has worked on that for the past 28 years, without any promotion to even an associate professorship position, although he is addressed as “Prof” by the students. But he has no regrets. Of course, there are those who can conduct research, publish papers as well as teach well.
Today, organizations are realizing this anomaly and progressive ones have introduced what is known as “dual career path.” Under this, universities allow those who are wonderful teachers to remain in the same faculty and be graded for future promotion. Those who excel in research can then pursue this technical path and be judged on papers published in academia.
But what many universities are still doing is based on the older concept that a university’s competitive standing is in its research, forgetting that their main aim should be the employability of their graduates in the economic environment at large.
Can the graduates command the respect of employers?
One HR director of a local bank once remarked to me, “During the interview, I straight away know if they are from a certain university, my first choice, even though that university does not have a world-class standing. It is how they produce the graduates in the four years of practical discussions and presentations there.”
Tan Thian Seng is a HRM practitioner, trainer and consultant. He is from Singapore.
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