Why do professors have to teach?

[flyingpig]

I've always wondered about this. Do professors actually get paid for doing research or teaching?

Is teaching actually a side job for them?

 

[arildno]

This is highly varying from country to country, from institution to institution and relative to areas of research.

But, generally, I think that the percentage of time a professor should teach is a negotiable factor in the hiring process, dependent on the needs of the institution for instructors and expectation of the candidate's ability to generate top-notch research.

 

[flyingpig]

What if they hate mornings? Can they actually refuse to teach a morning class? My 1st yr chem professor complained about her morning everyday...I suppose not?

 

[micromass]

What if they hate mornings? Can they actually refuse to teach a morning class? My 1st yr chem professor complained about her morning everyday...I suppose not?

I suppose they can always reschedule the class...

 

[jtbell]

Do professors actually get paid for doing research or teaching? Is teaching actually a side job for them?

Depends on the institution. At the small college where I teach, classroom teaching is the main job for all professors, and research is a sideline. It's an important sideline, but mainly as a way to provide research opportunities for students.

In most departments here, the department chairman (or someone delegated by him) draws up a preliminary class schedule, and then the other department members can suggest changes, trade classes or rooms, etc. In my department, everybody gets a more or less satisfactory schedule most of the time.

 

[cristo]

What if they hate mornings?

The answer to this is the same as in every other profession: tough ****

 

[Jack21222]

The answer to this is the same as in every other profession: tough ****

At my university, it seems like the more senior professors get some say in when they teach, while the junior professors get stuck with whatever is left.

 

[BobG]

I've always wondered about this. Do professors actually get paid for doing research or teaching?

Is teaching actually a side job for them?

They get paid for attracting students (and tuition money) and for attracting research grants. Just attending school on the same campus as a famous researcher is worth something prestige-wise, but most want some actual exposure to the more famous professors before they'll actually fork out significantly higher tuition.

(Most students would be better off going to a cheaper school that actually focuses on teaching for their bachelor's degree and then go to the school with the best professors/researchers for their graduate degrees - if the undergraduate degree itself wasn't often part of the criteria for accepted into graduate school.)

 

[MATLABdude]

As always, PhDComics has some insight:

 

[DoggerDan]

I never taught college. What I taught we had to be ready to teach at any time, in addition to scheduled classes, and without complaint. People's lives depended on it.

I wonder if the prof who complained about her morning class ever had to factor that one in.

 

[Loren Booda]

"Those who can, do; those who can't, teach."

(I've taught students from nursery school to college level.)

 

[Pengwuino]

What if they hate mornings? Can they actually refuse to teach a morning class? My 1st yr chem professor complained about her morning everyday...I suppose not?

Who doesn't hate mornings? If I had my way, liking mornings would result in psychiatric examination before being allowed to work.

Oh and liking morning would immediately make you fail the test.

 

[arildno]

Mondays are even worse, flappers.

 

[George Jones]

Who doesn't hate mornings? If I had my way, liking mornings would result in psychiatric examination before being allowed to work.

Oh and liking morning would immediately make you fail the test.

I like mornings. Typically, I go to bed around 11 pm and get up around 6 or 6:30 am, even on weekends. I once taught a course that had classes that started at 8 am. (Not scheduled by me.)

 

[flyingpig]

I like mornings. Typically, I go to bed around 11 pm and get up around 6 or 6:30 am, even on weekends. I once taught a course that had classes that started at 8 am. (Not scheduled by me.)

Wow 6:00am! You are like my grandmother!

 

[BobG]

Who doesn't hate mornings? If I had my way, liking mornings would result in psychiatric examination before being allowed to work.

Oh and liking morning would immediately make you fail the test.

I love mornings!

And I love sharing the joy of mornings with others! Anyone staying in my house wakes up to the sound of my electric coffee grinder at 5:00 AM in the morning. And the neighbors wake up to the sound of my dogs growling and barking at the neighbor's dogs through the holes in our fence. Everyone knows I love mornings!

And the best things is other morning people don't mind the noise I make in the morning. And as far as all the night people go - they're too groggy in the morning to shoot anyone, anyway.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm kind of wondering where this question came from. It would be pretty hard to have a university or college without classes and students, so why is it surprising that someone would have to teach those classes of students?

 

[Anonymous217]

As quoted from A Beautiful Mind: "Come on, you know the drill. You get these beautiful facilities and MIT gets America’s great minds of today teaching America’s great minds of tomorrow."

 

[flyingpig]

Can u actually get fired if you don't teach? can a professor even get fired?