Professors: Underutilised  treasure in our universities?

June 13, 2012, 7:26 pm , the island

by Professor Ranjith Senaratne,
Vice Chairman, University Grants Commission

Continued from yesterday

Critical examination of the role of Professor in a seat of higher learning

A professor occupies the highest echelon in the career of academic, who could make a substantial contribution to the advancement of academic and research activities, image building and institutional development. The Professoriate also probably represents the most important intellectual resource and asset of a higher education institution. Thus it is not unreasonable to expect a great deal from professors. Yet, strangely enough, the role of a professor remains undefined and no job description exists for a university professor. This seems to be the case in most of the universities in the world including the UK. In view of this lacuna, Prof. Bruce Macfarlane at Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong carried out extensive research on this subject, which led to a seminal publication titled "Intellectual Leadership in Higher Education: Reviewing the Role of the University Professor". He argues that Professor is not only a career grade, but also a leadership role.

Professors through their cutting edge research occupy a place on the frontiers of knowledge and hold a share in moving them forward. The new knowledge generated gives rise to new discoveries, theories, frameworks, critiques, analyses and models, which others draw upon and are influenced by. Thus they are prominent "academic citizens" who apply their disciplinary or professional specialism for enhancing scholarly and public outreach work; and thereby they occupy leadership position in scholarly societies. They could influence policy makers through public debate on social, moral, cultural, political and environmental issues and help to form and mould public opinion. In addition, professors have a moral obligation to stand up against undemocratic and oppressive moves by regimes and external agents, even when such interventions fall outside their immediate area of expertise.

However, it should be stressed that not necessarily all professors in the Sri Lankan Universities belong to the class of intellectual elite or be considered a treasure. Regrettably, some have contributed minimally to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge even in their own fields; and have not published in any indexed journal so that their "international presence" is invisible. Moreover, as per the current evaluation procedure, possessing a doctoral degree is not a pre-requisite to become a professor. In many countries in the world, including neighbouring India, a PhD is a must to become a professor. Weaknesses in the Circular No. 916 have led to the regrettable situation in Sri Lanka. The circular is presently under review by the UGC with a view to closing the gap. There is a also a growing concern that some professors in certain faculties are engaged in consultancy work during working hours because of attractive remunerations. This has affected their availability at the university. This is unhealthy and appropriate steps need to be taken to prevent such improper practices.

In a knowledge economy, universities the world over are moving away from the classical intellectual model towards a more pragmatic, business-oriented and entrepreneurial model. They expect professors to be knowledge entrepreneurs generating income from their intellect through capitalization of knowledge, consultancies, patents and other means. However, owing to academic conservatism, some Vice Chancellors remain averse to this seemingly commercial model and reject the idea that university professors should contribute to wealth creation through transformation of new ideas and knowledge into innovative products, processes or services. Professor Macfarlane in his article in the Times Higher Education of 17 November, 2011 has put forward the following five suggestions in order to make fuller use of professors as intellectual leaders.

1. Expect all Professors to contribute locally

Professors, by definition are, cosmopolitan, and they identify with international research groups and scholarly societies. Yet, they should be engaged in mentoring and promoting the career progression of junior staff in their own institution and contributing to it as a community. The Universities should develop a mechanism to get the most out of Professors with respect to institutional development.

2. Value creativity and originality over productivity

The academic productivity of Professors is primarily measured by the number of publications in indexed journals and their impact is gauged in terms of citations. In certain instances, research is concentrated in highly specialized fields and papers emanating from research are published in a narrow range of journals. Evaluating professors in this way may increase productivity in a narrow sense, but it does precious little to promote creativity and originality. In addition to the intellectual merits of a research proposal, professors need to align their research to university goals and objectives and to regional and national development. To facilitate such a shift, the Universities need to evolve a mechanism to support innovative and novel research in line with national needs, contributing to value creation. Here it is necessary to adopt a balanced approach providing for non-themed or blue-sky research as well as themed research.

3. Make better use of Emeritus and Retired Professors

Passionate commitment to intellectual pursuits does not necessarily diminish with age. This is substantiated by the fact that some of the most influential Professors in the modern world such as Richard Dawkins, Noam Chomsky and Germaine Greer are emeritus in status. We can take the cue from US institutions that have established Emeritus Colleges, which offers retired Professor an opportunity to continue teaching and research. This also affords more opportunities for the junior academics to receive advice and guidance for career progression and professional development. In fact the UGC is currently in the process of developing a data base of retired Professors with a view to obtaining their services to reinforce and consolidate the new initiatives of the Government for the internationalization of our Universities and improving their world ranking with the objective of making Sri Lanka an educational hub. They could also contribute towards making up academic deficiencies in newly established Universities and provide able and mature academic leadership to the new academic institutions being established, both public and private, so as to improve access to higher education

4. Nurture and guide Professors

An academic who has satisfied the criteria to be appointed a professor may not instantly be able to perform as an intellectual leader. Like anybody else, newly appointed professors need guidance and development to help them discharge their role effectively. This will obviously not include as Prof. Macfarlane put it, an anodyne induction into ‘University Processes and Procedures", but a short programme by experienced professors on how to articulate the new role – a role that goes beyond the pursuit of personal publication and income generation to embrace activities and initiatives aimed at helping universities to attain their goals and realize their dreams and potential.

Continued tomorrow