The Mad Rat Race to Professorship

Last week I was given the news that two of my colleagues have been awarded Associate Professor, not to mention some other senior lecturers we know. I am also happy to learn that one of our good friends is also now a Prof Madya, and we shall be celebrating his success this coming 21st. Looks like our good friends are all going up in their varsity careers and that's really good news as I am so pleased for all of them.

As Endy went over to his colleagues offices to congratulate them ( even he is rumoured to get DS51 soon due to the uni's recent mesyarat Senat- good news for all these PhD folks!!) they all went over Endy to say that his next priority must be to publish as many papers as possible and he will be well on the way to Associate Proffessorship...

Huh?


Now folks dun get me wrong, I am very supportive of my husband's and friends' ambitions . He personally already has five papers to date on microstructural characterisation of glass.And I am sure all my friends and colleagues who has got it definitely earned it.


But what is this rubbish with " if u publish lots of papers you surely can become AP?" Is it just me or shouldn't you have a bit more than just loads of papers to qualify for Professorship? Associate or Full?


As far as I am concerned the title "Prof "is not a title to be taken lightly. Call me old -fashioned, but my perception of a 'Prof' ( as I am sure others as well) is that he is wise. He is generally seen as a point of reference and an expert in his field.Thus he must have the attributes not to mention charisma.Therefore he needs to earn it.


And its not just from a bunch of papers he has published.


Now I am not against those well deserving APs who get them due to their excellent track record of teaching experience and research carried out.



I am against the bunch of academicians who cannot even teach their students properly due to either their lackadaisical attitude towards their responsibility to students or lack of experience but see and use publishing papers as a sure-fire way of getting promotion in their academic status; not to mention pay .

The quality of a researcher is based on the quality of research produced and if these people have their work published in some citation-indexed journals then I am fine with it, in fact I applaud efforts like this.They are the ones that truly deserve the titles as they truly contribute to the body of knowledge.

Unfortunately in this mad rat race, the quantity is seen more as a priority as opposed to the former so it doesnt matter in whatever journal you publish so long as you have a miminum of X papers published.And this is what I do not agree on. What happens to the quality of the research?

It seems to me these lecturers have found a way to abuse the research incentive scheme the Government has given the lecturers.

And I am far from happy.

We have academicians in our faculty presently ( at least in my University) who is rubbish at imparting knowledge to their students but excellent in their politics to go up the ladder of uni admin. These lecturers do not deserve the titles they get but they get it anyway. Some of these APs/Professors have their names in various publications but know nothing of the research undertaken. Strange right? But true, nonetheless, as they 'coerce' collaboration from other reseachers. Then they brag about the X no of papers they have produced they know nothing about.All in the name of getting status and better pay.


Is this the kind of quality we want to achieve in academicians?


And then when they have all achieved what they want or where they want to be, they leave the university to go to another university to either become a full Prof, TNC or even VC.

Its happened, and its very sad.


Whatever it is I hope my academician friends out there will think of their students more than ourselves as it is our responsibilty and we will be asked about how well we have done this after we die.


We should all know by now teaching at the University is not about US but the students.


Proffessorship should come to you , not the other way round.

At least that's what I think.