“Time for professors to spend a full day in the classroom or office working with students.”
To my everlasting shame I am an Engineering Graduate from UC Berkeley.
If it hadn’t been for the Indian grad students who functioned as teaching assistants, I would not have gotten my education. The only “notable” professor that actually taught undergraduate students was Dr. Edward Teller ( father of the H Bomb), and he taught Physics for non-physical science majors ( we called it sorority girl physics). The rest of them were too busy with their government funded research to actually do any teaching. I was there for the “free and “filthy” speech “movements. For the helicopters ( provided by Jerry the Fairy’s father) gassing the masses in Sproul Plaza and all the anti-Vietnam war protests. And I actually bought a lifetime membership in the alumni association. Which even to this day, is almost constantly fundraising for a place that, as Al Pacino stated in “ The Scent of a Woman” should have had a flamethrower taken to it fifty years ago! Where the professors make exorbitant salaries and the football coach takes home nearly $2 million a year! Yes, “higher education” is a “bubble” that needs to be broken, and the sooner the better.
In graduate business school in the 1970’s the best teachers were the adjunct retired businesspeople who could bring real world examples to the classroom. The Harvard PhD’s, who never spent a day inside a corporate office were clueless about what they were teaching. I’ve heard the same thing from today’s students.
For grins when I retired from the corporate world I talked to a top 20 business school about earning a PhD. I have an MBA, 35 years of experience in the corporate world as COO of a major company as well as several division president assignments. Plus I’ve sat on the board of directors of venture capital funded startups. I was told none of the real world experience would be applied to shorten the time required to earn the doctorate. I needed to go through the full 5 year program. Needless to say I rejected the opportunity and chose to consult part time in the private sector instead of teach.
Somehow it seems to me business administration should be taught by real world business leaders, not university trained academics. However, academics control the university system and the path to the well paying tenured positions ensuring the academics will mold the minds of today’s MBA’s instead of the people with the practical knowledge and experience.