One of the arguments against universities' growing reliance on part-time, non-tenure-track faculty is that it amounts to a form of false advertising: students enroll at Prestigious University X, and expect to receive an education from the world-class faculty employed there. Instead, they get taught by a cadre of grad students and adjunct faculty who work cheap, who are not the reason for the school's top reputation, and who are, arguably, functioning as part of a shell game played with students' tuition dollars. Today, according to the AAUP, 48 percent of faculty are not on the tenure track, and 68 percent of new hires are taking place off the tenure track.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Who Is The Professor?
Erin has a most interesting post:
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3 comments:
It's obvious, isn't it? According to Mr. Gates, teachers don't improve after their third year, so this is a reasonable step for the colleges to take, right?
This is happening more and more. My daughter had to lead a group to complain about a foreign grad student who was hired to teach a freshman level math course. He taught none of what was on the tests and spent most of every class complaining about the problems of assimilating in American society. Even after repeated complaints (my son had him two years later for the same class) this guy is still there, not teaching, but getting a paycheck and in the meantime taking up space on the foreign student rolls.
In my experience, with the academic job market so tight, often the classes at the tech or community colleges are taught by those who took their degree from a less-than elite university. They are, in most cases, just fine - English-speaking, competent, and fully up to the job.
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