Throughout the decades education has progressed and with it teachers and their responsibilities. Now most teachers or professors have limited responsibilities in teaching and spend most of their time teaching. But few have considered or done anything about how this effects students. The movement of responsibilities from teaching to research has made it harder for students to learn or get ahold of their professors if they need help.
In the Merriam-Webster dictionary a professor is defined as “a teacher at a university, college or sometimes secondary school” or a “one that teaches or profess special knowledge of an art, sport, or occupation requiring skill.” But in today’s higher education teaching is a small meager part of professors work. The breakdown of their time spent in areas can vary but is generally around 75, 15, 15 with 75 percent being time spent in research, 15 percent of it teaching, the rest being other academic responsibilities. This little amount for teaching puts students as a small part of the professors job and emphasis on research. One of the main reasons why colleges emphasize research is because it is one of the main ways colleges get there funding. Also with tenure students can sometimes get difficult or bad professors, because of tenure. But the American Association of University Professors is considering to revise the tenure system that would replace the existing one. One of the main parts is its emphasis on teaching more at teaching universities while at research universities there should be more on research, but both of them will be balanced several years at the university and achieving tenure.
The current system in which professors time is focused takes away from teaching, though it is a beneficial to have professors researching forefront of new information for their field. But with the new draft on tenure it may even out research and teaching a some helping students learn more effectively.
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