Marc Kubasak said he loves to teach, but is being advised to
take time off from teaching to focus on his research in order to
get tenure.
The part-time lecturer for the life sciences and part-time
post-doctoral fellow said research takes priority over teaching at
public institutions like UCLA because lecturers must publish
research to get tenure.
“I have to give up the teaching to do the research, to get
the job teaching that I want,” he said.
Kubasak is one of many who debate the merits and shortfalls of
studying and teaching at research universities like UCLA.
Departments gain prominence by publishing cutting-edge research.
And though research is not the only criteria for landing tenure as
a professor, it is considered crucial.
While some educators think professors’ research helps
enrich students’ education, others think the pressure to
publish research comes at the expense of spending time
teaching.
Kubasak said he thinks the benefits and rewards of teaching and
research are not well-balanced at a research institution like UCLA,
and that students would benefit if professors could spend all of
their time teaching.
Roger Bohman, a lecturer in molecular, cell and developmental
biology, said the emphasis at UCLA on research means not all
professors are great teachers.
“Teaching is not held in such high esteem,” he
said.
In his own course, a 300-student lecture, he said students
cannot receive as much personal attention as they would in smaller
classes at a community college, for example.
“How much attention are (students) going to get from me?
There isn’t time. And yet I try to make as much time
available as I can,” he said.
Bohman, who does not do research, said he thinks professors who
are busy researching might be less inclined to form personal
relationships with students that go beyond discussing course
material.
But many department chairmen disagree.
Utpal Banerjee, the chair of the MCD Biology department, said he
believes research should not be seen as separate from teaching, but
as a tool to enhance teaching.
That is the benefit of a research university like UCLA, he
said.
“The reason why people, undergraduates, would like to come
to a place like UCLA rather than go to any other teaching college
is because the faculty are involved in research, and that research
keeps them current.
“And as a result, they are then able to impart to the
student the kind of work that is going on currently,” he
said.
Banerjee said what professors teach is considered current
because they do research in the field, and students benefit in ways
that are not always obvious.
Banerjee’s course, Life Sciences 10H, combines research
and teaching to involve students in ground-breaking research.
The course is sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
and the students’ findings were published in a paper on
Tuesday.
Gerald Call, a post-doctoral fellow and instructor for the
course, said he thinks his department equally emphasizes teaching
and research.
Call said the course’s incorporation of research combines
his interests of research and teaching, and has unique results for
students.
“In essence, they’re my hands doing my research
while I teach them to do it. So I do both in one fell swoop,”
he said.
The opinion that research enhances teaching is not limited to
the sciences.
Teofilo Ruiz, the chair of the history department, agreed,
saying that research and teaching contribute to each other.
“You cannot be a good teacher unless you do research, and
teaching helps with your research as well,” he said.
Ruiz said he thinks of himself first and foremost as a teacher
and loves to be in the classroom, but he has also published a great
deal of research.
The history department is one of the most highly ranked in the
world, Ruiz said, so there is an expectation to research and
publish.
But he said the demand to publish is self-motivated.
Yahya Rahmat-Samii, the chair of the electrical engineering
department, said the same was true in his department.
Teaching, research and service to the university are all factors
for advancement to a professor’s position, but research is
critical.
“Indirectly there is a pressure, especially for younger
faculty for promotion. But senior faculty are very productive just
by their own nature,” he said, adding that professors find it
desirable to be visible in the national and international academic
scene through publishing and be invited to conferences.
Rahmat-Samii said the department does an annual report in which
it rates all of the papers the faculty publishes. He said the
department never quantifies how many papers professors are expected
to publish, but that faculty want to “shine in comparison to
their colleagues,” both within and outside of UCLA.
He admitted there was pressure, but said it was pressure
“hopefully with joy.”
The time professors spend researching makes them better teachers
rather than inhibiting their teaching, he said.
“(Professors who) are up to date in terms of material also
typically are more exciting teachers for students,”
Rahmat-Samii said, adding that students can sense when professors
are up to date with the industry.
Banerjee said he has to adjust the amount of research he does
when he is teaching courses that demand more time.
Before becoming chair, he used to teach one large engineering
course a year of 200 to 300 students, and said he was easily
devoting 70 percent of his time just to running that course.
He said quality of teaching and research are both important and
that there is merit to being focused on one or the other, but that
both are necessary and need to be done well.
“The point is this: Every person has to decide, based on
their own goals and careers, how to sort of divide up their own
time. It’s not that one is instead of the other. Both need to
be done. Therefore one has to partition out the proper amount of
time,” he said.
The history department, which instructs 21,000 students a year,
requires everyone in the faculty to teach one graduate and three
undergraduate courses a year, Ruiz said.
“We tend to do our research when we are not
teaching,” he said.
Ruiz admitted time constraints could be a challenge.
“Clearly sometimes we are doing far too many things, but
the reality of this is that of course we try to do everything well.
We do not always succeed, but we try,” he said.