Academic staff

“ Instead of an academic staff made up of those who professed to teach some special branch of knowledge, these colleges had a master and fellows (or tutors) , men who were fit to teach others those rudiments of higher learning in which they had themselves been taught. ”

“ As intimated above, men with ingrained scholarly ideals and a consistent aim to serve the ends of learning will still occasionally be drawn into the executive office by force of circumstances -- particularly by force of the slow-dying preconception that the preferences of the academic staff should count for something in the choice of their senior member; and this will happen in spite of the ubiquitous candidature of aspirants who have prepared themselves for this enterprise by sedulous training in all the arts of popularity and by a well organized backing of influential "friends." ”

“ To promote these changing student roles, student bodies have to play a role in shaping the quality of their educational experience. Although creating teaching and learning environments that harness OER in educationally effective ways is primarily the responsibility of academic staff, student bodies—as key stakeholders in higher education—should be aware of the relevant issues and integrate them as appropriate into their interactions with other higher education stakeholders. ”

“ It is most important to observe that, if impending changes alter the collegiate system or affect its available resources, the University will have to supply a large part of the teaching power, now provided by the colleges, in the shape of an increased professoriate or sub-professoriate. I should not like to have to make even an estimate now of the staff that we may require in ten or twenty years, and I should very much deprecate any measure which, taking the present as the standard of our needs, should prevent us from securing such development as the occasion for it may arise. ”

“ Now I am not prepared to allow that our staff of historical teachers is either sufficient in itself or organised in the best way at the present moment. I am quite sure that, if our study advances during the next ten years in anything like the same ratio in which it has advanced during the last ten years, we shall need more professors and an organisation of teaching, which, like the present organisation of Natural Science professors, may be not so much dependent as we now are on the tutorial system in the colleges. ”

“ The chief object of such professorships would be the same as that in the proposed State laboratories, viz.—to keep a staff of the most competent men wholly engaged upon research in pure science. The professors of physical and chemical research might be selected in accordance with the suggestions already made, and be appointed by the Senate or other governing body, with the advice of the Council of the Royal Society. ”

“ We come to the regular faculty of the university, the Professores Ordinarii. They enjoy the fullest privileges, are appointed for life, and receive beside the tuition-fees regular incomes. They may be elected to the Academic Senate and to the Rectorship, the Rector or Chancellor not being appointed for life, but changing yearly,—the various faculties being represented in turn. ”

“ When university presidents learn that every professorship, clinical and otherwise, ought to be in some measure a research chair, and that research must be combined with teaching, the need for special departments of research will not be so urgent. ”

“ In our colleges the professors are paid for teaching and for teaching only, while in a foreign university the teaching is wholly secondary, and the professor is expected to announce in his lectures the results of his own study, and not the thoughts of other men. Until the whole status of the professors in our chief universities can be changed, very little original thought or investigation can be expected, and these institutions cannot become what they should be, the soul of the higher life of the nation. ”

“ Here comes not only the opportunity but the obligation of those whose vocation is in research institutions. The university teacher may generally be considered to have done his share when in addition to his research work he has instructed his regular classes. Those, on the other hand, whose lots are cast in institutions of research, being relieved of the round of duties incident to the university professorship, would seem to be marked as the ones to use such instruments of general education as are most suitable for reaching the great public outside the schools and colleges. ”

“ The principles of investigation may be learned in the college, the fields where such work is to be done may be pointed out, the desire to do such work awakened, the college professor may himself be engaged in such work, but original research in any department is not the chief work of the college student, if, indeed, it can be said to be a part of his work at all. ”

“ The establishment of a Faculty of Science in every University, implies that of a corresponding number of Professorial chairs, the incumbents of which need not be so burdened with teaching as to deprive them of ample leisure for original work. I do not think that it is any impediment to an original investigator to have to devote a moderate portion of his time to lecturing, or superintending practical instruction. ”

“ At least one such businesslike chief of bureau has seriously endeavoured so to standardize and control the work of his staff as to have all courses of lectures professed in the department reduced to symmetrical and permanent shape under the form of certified syllabi, which could then be taken over by any member of the staff, at the discretion of the chief, and driven home in the lecture room with the accredited pedagogical circumstance and apparatus. ”

“ Almost all the leading colleges, universities and higher institutions of learning at home and abroad were represented, although about 125 officers and speakers were scholars not engaged in university teaching. These include museum curators, experts in government scientific bureaus, representatives of research institutions, observatories, the army and navy, legislative bodies and diplomatic embassies, besides eminent municipal officers, school administrators, editors, librarians, engineers, architects, artists, physicians, social workers, clergymen, lawyers and jurists. ”

“ The Secretary of Education, with the advice of the Board of Advisors, shall develop alternative sources of faculty talent, particularly in the fields of science and technology, including faculty exchanges and referrals from other institutions of higher education, private sector retirees, Federal employees and retirees, and emeritus faculty members at other institutions of higher education. ”

“ Because of this sort of encouragement and this sort of united effort and material support the creative work of every department and of every scholar in the entire institution will be greater in volume and better in quality.
The proper distribution of routine duties and responsibilities at any institution is an important question, and there is a numerical ratio, not a large one, either, between professors and students beyond which nothing can be properly done; but as far as possible let the research man be relieved of routine drudgery and worry of every type. ”

“ The active duties of a college professor leave little time for continued systematic investigation. A new era, however, is dawning in university education in America, and the college professor who shows ability for scientific investigation will undoubtedly be relieved of the yearly teaching of immature minds and be left free to devote himself to graduate students, to research, and to the general supervision of his department, rather than to the daily drill which should be left to trained assistants. ”

“ The pedagogical department of a college, and too, a thoroly reputable college, may be, and usually is, merely one of the many departments of the institution, represented on its faculty by a single professor and offering but a limited range of professional work—a few courses in the history of education, principles of education, and "pedagogy," usually. A teachers college, on the other hand, has an organization and, sometimes, a financial status of its own. Its relationship to the institution as a whole is getting to be the same as that of the other professional schools. ”

“ The Inspectors-General of Studies will be appointed by us, each being selected from three candidates proposed by our Royal Council of Public Instruction, and who will have been chosen from amongst the rectors and inspectors of the Universities, the deans of faculty, the provosts, the censors of study, and the professors of philosophy, rhetoric, and superior mathematics in the royal colleges. ”

“ While the fundamental control of the student body rests, as it always has, with the Faculty, the students have almost always shown themselves ready and able to deal with questions of a certain type more promptly and effectively than the Faculty. ”

“ At universities with good pedagogical departments, not a single new chair would have to be created; the general pedagogical work of the student-teacher's first graduate year is already offered, while the special courses for history teaching, mathematics teaching, etc., may be given by the already installed professors of these subjects. Probably every university of rank has, in each department, at least one man who can give such courses. ”

“ As for the state university, it will allow the widest range of free electives, and as an university it will aim to comprise within itself every possible department of practical activity, such as business administration, journalism, banking and finance, foreign trade, political science, psycho-analysis, mining, sanitary engineering, veterinary surgery, as well as law, medicine, agriculture, and civil and mechanical engineering. ”

“ Then the trustees passed an ordinance to the effect that any professor in the university could be called upon to teach any branch, upon penalty of dismissal if he refused. We were determined that our teachers should be men of broad general culture, and not mere narrow specialists. Of coarse, every one of them had studied a variety of branches at school or college, and surely any man ought to be able to teach any thing which he himself had ever learned. ”

“ Will the universities rid themselves of the incubus of research, or at least relegate it to a separate department so that the main efforts of the professors and lecturers may be concentrated on other matters? ”

“ They are, however, of opinion that such an arrangement cannot be made at the present time, and that the exigencies of the case may be best met by founding a new professorship which shall terminate with the tenure of office of the Professor first elected. The services of a man of the highest attainments in science, devoting his life to public teaching as such Professor, and engaged in original research, would be of incalculable benefit to the University. ”

“ The force of instruction in the department of general studies, leaving out of consideration the department of modern languages, comprises two professors, one associate professor, three assistant professors, one instructor and one assistant, a total of eight, probably a larger number than is found in any but the very largest colleges. In the department of modern languages, there is one professor, one associate professor, one assistant professor and four instructors. ”

“ Fill your professorial chairs in colleges with men of broad learning, and of commanding personality, and do not worry about the alleged evil influences of athletics, and of other college activities outside of the recitation-room. That was the recommendation of trustee Rutherfurd forty years ago; to-day I add: the college needs great professors just as much as the various research departments of a university need them ”

“ They conceive, however, that the Medical Professor of the University might deliver Lectures in one particular branch of the Science, and that the other Departments might be conducted by gentlemen, who should be named Lecturers in the College, as is the case with respect to the different branches of Learning and Science, which are taught in the Colleges of the Universities at home. The words of the Charter are evidently restrictive. The College shall 'consist of a Principal and four Professors,' and in this view of the subject the Board are supported by high legal authority. ”

“ I have already mentioned the fact that the election of professors was attended by much dissension in our board. This began, as usual, with Brother A———, whose notions were always of the most unpractical kind. He wanted us to employ specialists; men who understood thoroughly the branches they professed to teach, and who would be independent of text-books. According to his extravagant ideas, every department of knowledge is in rapid growth, and only a man who devotes himself assiduously to one study is able to teach that study in accordance with the requirements of modern times. ”

“ By this arrangement the college -- undergraduate department -- falls into the position of an appendage, a side issue, to be taken care of by afterthought on the part of a body of men whose chief legitimate interest runs -- should run -- on other things than the efficient management of such an undergraduate training-school, -- provided always that they are a bona fide university faculty, and not a body of secondary-school teachers masquerading under the assumed name of a university. ”

“ The most effectual plan, and at the same time least liable to abuse, seems to be that of conferring Professorships, with duties of instruction attached to them. The occupation of teaching a branch of knowledge, at least in its higher departments, is a help rather than an impediment to the systematic cultivation of the subject itself. The duties of a professorship almost always leave much time for original researches; and the greatest advances which have been made in the various sciences, both moral and physical, have originated with those who were public teachers of them ”