

Why I am Not a Professor, or The Decline and Fall of the British University - amichail
http://www.lambdassociates.org/blog/decline.htm

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anaphoric
I would agree about the quality of publications and the pin heads who evaluate
us simply by the number. It's really very stupid.

On the point of teaching however I am a bit more optimistic ... in Sweden at
least. I am fairly impressed with most of my students. They are for the most
part curious, hard working and smart. So far the elements that have tried to
dumb everything down have failed. Although they do keep trying...

In the long run education is probably in trouble.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccYoVnBc_fk>

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amichail
Counting papers is dumbing things down -- initially for academics. This in
turn may result in dumbing things down for students as mediocre academics (who
would not get tenure without counting papers) may then teach at an easier
level.

~~~
anaphoric
I know, I know. And the mediocre academics take mediocre graduate students and
the whole thing repeats... thank god a lot of the undergraduate students are
wise enough to recognize lame professors. The best students have fun making
these frauds look stupid in front of the class. BTW students need to be
encouraged to act in such ways.

I have been fighting my private battle to get evaluators to actually read 1-3
papers of those they evaluate. Usually if someone is working on pointless
stuff, you can see it pretty clearly when you read their stuff.

Whatever the case, the simple counting technique must stop. BTW some
consistent universally accepted impact factor rating might help in computer
science. I don't know.

~~~
maurycy
The Erdos Number is a good attempt.

~~~
jey
Huh? I don't see how having a lower Erdos number indicates that your work is
better. The Erdos number has nothing to do with publication quality nor
citations.

~~~
maurycy
It was joke. More seriously, the Erdos number is indeed far better indicator
than the number of publications.

Number of citations is not as good as it seems, because not all citations are
created equal.

I believe that, if we are talking about the details here, the best system
should be similar to the Page Rank. Citations from important works are more
valuable. Awarded papers, like Nobel or Fields Medal, could get the highest
rank.

The only problem with this system, which I see, is its mix of dynamic and
static nature. The paper's rank can be dramatically changed literally
overnight. On the other hand, it takes ages to get the Nobel prize. Not that
good when your career depends on your rating.

However, it should be quite obvious that brilliant work is not appreciated
immediately. So, very likely that the problem lies in the educational system,
that requires fast and pretty objective, not necessary reliable, method of
rating.

Furthermore, I don't know whether there's a correlation between educational
successes, and research abilities. I bet there is no. Perhaps it does not
really make any difference whether a guy got a Nobel, or two.

~~~
amichail
You can combine PageRank with a prediction market. People would make bets on
the (perhaps relative) PageRank of papers at some future date.

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hasanmurtaza
The ennui which pervades universities has only one beneficial (and pernicious)
effect.

Those students who are ahead enough in their understanding to _not need_ the
education, will do fine . Those students who rely on the system to educate
them will sink into the muck of mundane reality. So the system will cause a
stratification of the students, into high-fliers and ordinary joes.

The only way to come out ahead in the university system is to reach a point
where you do not need it.

~~~
pixcavator
>Those students who are ahead enough in their understanding to not need the
education, will do fine . Those students who rely on the system to educate
them will sink into the muck of mundane reality.

You are forgetting the third category - those who _think_ that don't need the
education.

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kajecounterhack
Actually, in High school, my entire grade level/class of 2009 uses a forum
board I made. We trade study guides and by the time the test comes, everyone
answers the same things. If the class average is low, we get a curve.
Otherwise, we're all happy. The internet is indeed revolutionizing things. Of
course, then theres always that class geek who kills the curve, but its not
that often.

And yeah I totally agree with this post. My father is a Computer Science
professor and he's friggin pissed with the corruption of the entire school
system. He got rated down for failing a student and a lot of crap...a lot of
undo stress

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tarkin2
reading this paper makes me think society's (British at least) emphasis on
consumer culture has serious flaws. however, it seems the government is more
to blame through using this ideology to avoid paying for education.

it may be a nice way of saving money (from the government's perspective) but
the dumbing-down of universities and consequentially the higher of degree
owning citizens serves to vindicate the real problem, the pre-university
education system in the UK.

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jsnx
Funny, this is happening in the states, too. I could copy-paste this paper and
call it "Why I Am Not In School".

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albertcardona
At UCLA, students are graded with a bell curve. They have become masters at
figuring out exactly how much should they study, relative to their peers, to
fall within the right tail of the curve. Students no longer share notes,
neither talk to each other beyond superficial matters. They find their college
party and romance partners in other disciplines, unsurprisingly.

And as a T.A., don't even _dare_ to not give an A to a student. He'll grade
_you_ down, and your chances as a T.A. (that is, the means to get a salary or
an extra as a PhD student) will vanish.

The paradox here is: how can everyone get an A and still be graded on a Bell
curve? To this day, I don't quite get it. In any case: students get A, but
they all need one or two years of lab internship before they can do else other
than harm themselves in the lab.

The author of the text is totally right. And there are no politically correct
solutions. None at all. We all expect the system to somehow collapse at some
point, and then restart.

~~~
npk
Sounds like lake woebegone, where all the women are strong, all the men are
good-looking, and all the children are above average.

