3/16/2026 at 9:23:22 AM
Over here in Germany, professors' job is "research and teaching". According to the internet, the author's university is a publicly funded university as well. I can see how AI can make you faster on the research side, but you give up 100% of the teaching/developing people part.As a tax payer, I am very concerned if the people I fund with my taxes to do a job unilaterally declare they are no longer going to do the half of it.
by __bjoernd
3/16/2026 at 9:28:10 AM
Teaching and research should be decoupled. Professors are hired and granted tenure primarily based on their ability to produce original research. The skillsets are different; often good researchers are bad teachers, and good teachers are bad researchers.by fasterik
3/16/2026 at 9:52:22 AM
There is a case to be made that teaching improves the understanding and insight of the teacher which in turn can increase their research ability. For starters, it provides a less boring way of drilling fundamentals. But more importantly, having to answer questions from students which very likely will be coming from odd and unexpected directions, helps the teacher clarify their thinking. It could well be that one of these odd questions, the answer for which the teacher takes for granted, may actually hold some insight or raise questions into what they are working on outside of class.In a similar vein, it is recommended that if you are in a business meeting you hear what the junior positions have to say about something first and work your way up the chain of command rather than the other way around due to the junior positions being less familiar with internal processes and thus more likely to flag or suggest something completely out of left field that the higher ups might miss.
by rcarr
3/16/2026 at 12:48:46 PM
I tend to agree that teaching can clarify one's ideas, but I don't think the benefits are equal across the board. I think the argument for benefits to research are stronger when it comes to supervising graduate students and teaching seminars. I'm far less convinced that we should have math professors teaching Calc 1 if they're not really passionate about it, and I'm especially not in favor of tying up their salary and performance evaluation with it.Note, I'm saying all of this as someone outside of academia who is passionate about science and had a very mixed bag of teachers in undergrad.
by fasterik
3/16/2026 at 9:31:47 AM
This used to be the case: research was conducted mostly at academic institutions that did not provide degrees [1]. The "research university" is a relatively new thing[1] https://asteriskmag.com/issues/10/the-origin-of-the-research...
by coolness
3/16/2026 at 7:43:41 PM
In this sort of case the “teaching” happening with graduate assistants is teaching how to do research. That’s inextricably part of the job of a research professor, is to teach others how to do the job.by skywhopper
3/16/2026 at 9:39:48 AM
That's not entirely the case in Germany. Applicants need to give a lecture which is public. Usually members of the student union will be present and will have a say later within the hiring committee about the quality of teaching.But I do agree that the ability to produce and procure research is not at all coupled with the ability to teach.
by jcattle
3/16/2026 at 9:41:36 AM
Absolutely not. You could argue this for entry level lectures, but not at the PhD level. PhD is learning how to do original research, how could you separate teaching that from doing that?by maxnoe
3/16/2026 at 10:45:16 AM
No, they’re usually rated on the ability to bring in grant money.by jleyank
3/16/2026 at 9:33:25 AM
You probably need to step outside of your US-centric bubble if you are to comment on how university works outside of the US. There was a fairly large clue in the parent comment.by alvah
3/16/2026 at 9:42:16 AM
"Often good researchers are bad teachers, and good teachers are bad researchers" is a statement about humans, not a specific country, as far as I can tell. Sure, I happened to use the word "tenure" which is generally used in a U.S. context but you should be able to take a charitable reading of what I said and understand the broader point.by fasterik
3/16/2026 at 9:41:29 AM
To my knowledge the view is correct for places outside the US.UK universities do currently hire people to do research and teach. And tenure is based on research not teaching. Teaching is seen as something that funds the operation to an extent. Some are excellent teachers. Some merely provide the material.
It works as is because researchers are not meaningfully impacted by having to do a few hours a week. And student get access to people in touch with the field. But it is not optimal having people who often are not good at teaching and/or don't particularly want to do it, taking lectures and tutorials.
by philipwhiuk