jeudi 29 mars 2007
Universities and Research Policy !
What makes a university reputation ?
Resrach is the key success factor for any university. Today what we are witnessing in many developed countries is that their universities , even the smallest ones , are adopting clear research policy. They require all their faculty to be research oriented in their job.
I rememmber from the case of Bocconi university, one the leader business schools in Eurpe, that some years ago research was not in the agenda. Building on its reputation it was able to attract the cleverest minds in academia. The scope is research and research and research. Of course these people dicovered that you can not teach without having your faculty doing research.
From the other hand I have to admit that these universities are providing their faculty with high level inrastructure but more than that the environment to do research.
Resrearch is an intellectual task that requires time, devotion and money. Giving time to faculty to do research means providing him with the right teaching load. We haven't to forget that overloading researchers with teaching will be very harmful both for teaching and research (assuming correlation between the two activties !). Devotion comes from the researcher himself. You can not do research without loving it. Unfortunately what we are witnessing today is that many of university professors are only doing teaching - either because they are not active in research by themselves and doing so taking advantae of the system lethargy or because the university itself os transforming them to teaching machines. Finally money is an important issue to boost research . Money for the research projects thensleves and money for the researcher efforts. Many universities in some part of the world are extremely wealthy, unfortunately research is not the main target.
If a nation wants to deveop, wants to go ahead and reach the developed ones it has to boost its way of creating knowledge.
Resrach is the key success factor for any university. Today what we are witnessing in many developed countries is that their universities , even the smallest ones , are adopting clear research policy. They require all their faculty to be research oriented in their job.
I rememmber from the case of Bocconi university, one the leader business schools in Eurpe, that some years ago research was not in the agenda. Building on its reputation it was able to attract the cleverest minds in academia. The scope is research and research and research. Of course these people dicovered that you can not teach without having your faculty doing research.
From the other hand I have to admit that these universities are providing their faculty with high level inrastructure but more than that the environment to do research.
Resrearch is an intellectual task that requires time, devotion and money. Giving time to faculty to do research means providing him with the right teaching load. We haven't to forget that overloading researchers with teaching will be very harmful both for teaching and research (assuming correlation between the two activties !). Devotion comes from the researcher himself. You can not do research without loving it. Unfortunately what we are witnessing today is that many of university professors are only doing teaching - either because they are not active in research by themselves and doing so taking advantae of the system lethargy or because the university itself os transforming them to teaching machines. Finally money is an important issue to boost research . Money for the research projects thensleves and money for the researcher efforts. Many universities in some part of the world are extremely wealthy, unfortunately research is not the main target.
If a nation wants to deveop, wants to go ahead and reach the developed ones it has to boost its way of creating knowledge.
mercredi 28 mars 2007
Research and Teaching ! What's wrong ?
This is a quick post about an idea I wanted to talk about since some time ! research and Teaching.
Most people think that research is helpful element to boost teaching. is this true ? In fact what we are experiencing today is that not too many people are doing research in the university but still teaching is going on.
Many people are teaching not just because they love it but because it is their source of revenue and easier to do than research.
This category of people is only taking the university level down since a university as far as I know and as far as I experienced it in western coutries is a place where knowledge is created and where thinking is a must. Unfortunately, today this is not the reality of many universities where previlege is only given to teaching and nothing else than teaching.
How can you improve the quality of your students if the professors thenseleves are not anymore critical thinkers. How can you give models to your students if they only see teaching machines and not intellectual and thinkful persons teaching them.
Research is a must for a university survive in the long run. Don't forget it !
Most people think that research is helpful element to boost teaching. is this true ? In fact what we are experiencing today is that not too many people are doing research in the university but still teaching is going on.
Many people are teaching not just because they love it but because it is their source of revenue and easier to do than research.
This category of people is only taking the university level down since a university as far as I know and as far as I experienced it in western coutries is a place where knowledge is created and where thinking is a must. Unfortunately, today this is not the reality of many universities where previlege is only given to teaching and nothing else than teaching.
How can you improve the quality of your students if the professors thenseleves are not anymore critical thinkers. How can you give models to your students if they only see teaching machines and not intellectual and thinkful persons teaching them.
Research is a must for a university survive in the long run. Don't forget it !
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