A modest proposal to reform universities
Research vs. teaching institutions? Here’s a better idea.
by Jordan Paper
The debate over the relationship between research and teaching in the contemporary university exists within the larger framework of late 20th-century understandings. These understanding include the belief that everyone should have a “higher” education, rendering the concept meaningless; and that funding is based on the number of students, leading legislators to measure productivity quantitatively and universities to try to expand enrolment and avoid failing students. The 20th-century understandings also permit the encroachment of pedagogy into higher education, which unnaturally shifts the burden of learning from the student to the teacher and places priority on self-esteem over learning. Thus, the debate over research and teaching reflects the loss of meaning of “the university,” now far removed from its original concept.
Once upon a time, the university was a place where professors professed (“declared publicly”); they professed original understandings of ideas fundamental to the societies of their times; they professed through lectures because printing was late in developing in Europe – the lectures were in lieu of books which students could not afford. Now, it has been suggested that professors no longer profess what they have learned to be passed on to the next generation. Instead, they are to digest and regurgitate what others have learned and published, and pass that along through now counter-productive lectures. Those who advance knowledge and understanding are expected not to profess those understandings but rather to leave it to others to relate their findings to students.
Assuming that universities remain distinct from institutions designed to prepare students for various trades (which are best taught by experienced experts in those trades) and that their role is to prepare students for professions in the broadest sense, there are ways of doing so more economically, efficiently and successfully than at present. Thus, the need to separate research from teaching would no longer be considered a necessary expedient. In my own career, after attaining tenure, research and teaching became coterminous. I could offer upper-level courses in my changing fields of interest and, after several years of constant feedback from my students, the combined research-teaching led to one book after another.
The following suggestions are based on over a half-century of higher education teaching and carrying out research in various types of institutions in Canada and the United States, as well as 11 years as a full-time student in private and public universities in both the humanities and the social sciences in the mid-20th century.
Bring the universities out of the 14th and 19th centuries
Subject matter content and understanding should be divided into discreet units rather than classes. These units could be taught in a variety of ways and not locked into a three-hour per week format with students and teachers in the same room; the amount of time and type of meetings should vary as needed.
Lectures should be public, rather than for classes. They should present new understandings, to be tested through public presentation and critiques prior to being published – not lectures based on published material. Teachers should be assisting students in learning as needed, not in rigidly structured formats that do not recognize the advent of printing, let alone the ever-changing contemporary electronic alternate universe.
For example, introductory courses in the various disciplines and fields do not need lectures, let alone the giant classes in which they are usually taught. All course material could be made available online. Graduate students would offer non-required discussion sessions and labs, and be available for individual counseling. (Senior faculty are ideally wrapped up in their research and happy to share it, but often no longer good at presenting a basic-level digest of contemporary scholarship in their fields as compared to those who have recently passed their comprehensive examinations.) Undergraduate students would advance at their own pace, turn in essays and take periodically offered examinations when ready.
University teaching should be rationalized according to who does what best
Introductory courses should be taught by graduate students who have demonstrated general mastery of their subject – they are up-to-date on their fields, enthusiastic about general content and contemporary methodologies, and are closest in age to their students. Such teaching should be considered necessary apprenticeship, be supervised by their professors, be limited in amount, and be paid at apprenticeship rates.
Middle-level courses should be taught by junior faculty (assistant professors) who, it is assumed, have already demonstrated a modicum of meaningful, original research. Upper-level and graduate courses should be taught by senior faculty who have demonstrated continual contributions to their fields and from whom advanced undergraduate students can benefit. Contract faculty are not mentioned – the contracts benefit neither the instructor, for whom research and administration are not part of their job description, nor the institution, save for the financial aspect.
University admissions should be limited
Admission should be limited to those who can demonstrate through meaningful examinations and essays their readiness to benefit from the educational experience rather than from inflated secondary school grades. This would force high schools to prepare students for study at universities and colleges.
Potential students should have unlimited chances to demonstrate their readiness for university and should not be encouraged to enter universities directly from secondary schools. Universities should offer tutoring in basic skills to bring students up to the necessary levels in reading comprehension, scholarly writing, essential mathematical skills and elementary science, as many do now. Students who need these skills but are insufficiently motivated to utilize the tutoring will be forced to leave – students will actually be allowed to fail. It would be better for these individuals in the long run, as they can seek training more suited to their abilities and attitudes.
Of course, none of these suggestions are realistic. Universities are often behemoth institutions utterly bound by inertia. In Canada, all are controlled by legislatures that tend to have little sympathy for the original purpose of universities but see them instead as factories for turning out trained workers while keeping them out of the workforce for three to four years to lower the unemployment rate. Alas, I have been making these suggestions since personal computers have been available with little success.
Jordan Paper is professor emeritus, York University, and Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria.
