Don't assume one (US) size fits all

I published a short article on April 15 on the Times Higher Education website.  The article is entitled From where I sit: Don’t assume one (US) size fits all.  In it, I express some of my concerns about the widespread desire in developing countries to build new universities using US universities as models.  I find that the biggest challenge in consulting in such countries lies in convincing those in charge to focus on what they want and need from their new institution and how to make it happen, rather than on how to create a copy of a successful foreign institution that is optimized to solve a very different set of problems and issues.

I invite you to check it out, and weigh in with comment on either the THE site or here. It is an important issue.      

Comments

[SISt]

I fully understand your arguments and agree with you completely especially as national attitudes and output appearances are the consequence of 'inner life experiences' (please let it call me like this, I suppose or hope you understand what I am meaning).

You are right in the following: there are good researchers who are good teachers, but being a good researcher does not automatically mean being a good teacher- and here I am going further as well as being a teacher does not automatically mean being a good one.

I believe that it is important having researchers as teachers as they can usually give more and broader inputs than those who are just 'reading' experiences others have made.

It is so difficult to say what a good teacher is made of as a teacher can be excellent for x and a ruin for y.
I myself had made such an experience when attending school: we had a teacher who was that excellent that I even wanted to study a major at University nobody could have imagined me having fun in. The majority of the class did not like the style as they considered the content bad presented. The teacher was changed: nobody studied this subject later on at University at all... With the new teacher I did not feel well as everything was presented, no curiosity and self experience were needed to gain results (it was just training, no studying)... The whole results of the class were average, no excellence with even one student given and necessary....

Therefore: the researcher with good research results needs to have contact with students as it gives a reciprocal input, output and motivation as well as idea of what can be done with the major one is studying and how such a life looks like!
Students, especially good ones do not want to have teachers, they want to have and need experts / role models in their fields who know exactly what they are talking about!

Lloyd comments: Thank you for the very thoughtful input. Your points are all very valuable. I will note, however, that in the US, the schools that send the largest proportion of their undergraduates off to graduate school are - colleges, where the faculty do not do research, rather than universities, where the faculty do do research. As with most things, this is a complex relationship.