Should tenure for college professors be abolished?

[sakky]

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sakky, the observation that leading physicians teach in top medical schools seems beside the point to me. I thought you were writing about the undergraduate anatomy course.</p>

<p>It is unsurprising that leading practitioners would work with pre-selected students at the graduate level. This happens in all fields. But that’s a long way from teaching all junior pre-meds (even thought they too have already been selected to a certain extent by surviving organic chemistry).</p>

<p>With regard to the tuition costs, you might get a banker to invest in few students who have been accepted to top business schools–but that’s quite different from investing in a college freshman.

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<p>I took the Newhope’s sentiments expressed in post #33 as a topic of potential speculation. Sure, perhaps it might be far-fetched to expect the world’s top bankers or physicians to teach college freshmen under today’s educational system. But would it really still be so far-fetched for them to teach college freshmen - or at least, a select group of them - to be taught by top practitioners within a reformed system. </p>

<p>Regarding the notion you invoke of medical practitioners teaching undergraduates, well, that’s exactly what happens right now under the medical educational systems in numerous foreign nations, including many who boast of health-care systems that, according to the WHO surpass that of the United States. Aspiring physicians in much of Western Europe have no need for ‘graduate studies’. They can dispense entirely with having to obtain a separate bachelor’ degree but can instead enter medical school right out of high school. And yes, some of their coursework may indeed be taught by practicing medical staff, including physicians. </p>

<p>Yet at the same time, I don’t think anybody would seriously accuse the medical establishments of Western Europe of employing incompetent physicians or of otherwise providing substandard care. Indeed, it seems to me that Europeans enjoy high-quality medical care that is entirely comparable - and on certain dimensions may even exceed- that received by Americans. While an argument perhaps could be made that the best American physicians are better than the best European physicians, I’m not convinced that much difference in quality exists between the average physicians of either system. And let’s face it, the average American will not receive care from the nation’s best physicians, but rather will tend to receive care from a relatively average one. </p>

<p>So if Americans who aim to become physicians must wait until they enter graduate studies before they receive instruction provided by currently practicing medical staff, it is only because we designed this nation’s medical training system to ensure that it be so. The notion of aspiring physicians, while still as undergraduates, receiving course instruction from currently practicing medical staff is rather unremarkable in many nations in the world. </p>

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With regard to the tuition costs, you might get a banker to invest in few students who have been accepted to top business schools–but that’s quite different from investing in a college freshman.

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<p>Then let me put it to you this way. Up to a mere few years ago, the MIT Sloan School of Management used to offer a course on Sports Management that was open to anybody who could obtain course instructor permission, including MIT freshmen (and potentially even Harvard freshman through cross-reg). That instructor who provided such permission was none other than [Daryl</a> Morey](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Morey]Daryl”>Daryl Morey - Wikipedia), who at the time was also Senior Vice President of the Boston Celtics, is currently General Manager of the Houston Rockets, and who would later be named one of the ‘Top Ten Most Creative People in Sports’ by Fast Company. {Indeed, it was his move to the Rockets that sadly forced him to cancel the course.} He co-taught the course with [Jessica</a> Gelman](<a href=“MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference - Sports Analytics, Business, & Technology.”>MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference - Sports Analytics, Business, & Technology.) who at the time was Director and is currently Vice President of the New England Patriots. </p>

<p>Maybe somebody should have told the Boston Celtics and New England Patriots that their executives should not be investing in the instruction of college undergraduates, including freshmen.</p>