It has become clear to me that graduate school predominantly focuses on research, and treats class teaching as an errand that is more of a chore than a goal. In fact, the first advice I had received from an established professor in my first week of school was to do just good enough for my classes, and to focus the bulk of my attention on research. This came as a shock to me contrasted to the general attitude during my undergraduate studies.

While such guideline had me reorient myself and my thoughts about graduate school, it also invoked me to consider its impact beyond myself as a graduate student. More precisely, I wanted to think about it from the perspective of the professor. Since I have joined graduate school, I have found it common to hear people referring to class teaching as a burden that professors dislike and think of as a waste of their time. Professors are primarily measured by how much publishing they do and how much funding they bring into the school. The teaching part is just a side dish that they often spend little time focusing on. While this might not be so detrimental to graduate students who can more or less guide their own learning by reading papers, it is extremely impactful to the undergraduate’s learning experience. Undergraduates come to school to build the basic knowledge needed to join a certain profession. They have little experience in self-guided learning. When a professor does not treat the class they teach as a priority, the learning experience is naturally going to be low quality. This is especially of negative impact because undergraduate classes focus on the fundamentals on top of which advanced knowledge is structured. Students could struggle for years to come if they don’t get the core concept right.

To that end, I wish the rewards system in higher education is changed to give more weight to teaching performance compared to research achievements. Finally, there should be mechanism to objectively measure the professor’s performance in class, and how well they are conducting their sessions. Student feedback might not be as objective as one would hope, but it is a good starting point from which a more accurate measure can be developed.