The teaching function of the academic profession

Abstract

Teaching is one of the academic core functions along with research, service and administrative work. Although the education of students and young researchers is at least as important for the university as research and innovation, there is and has always been a tension between teaching and research. Research has a more supra-regional effect for the reputation and visibility of the individual academic and their career development, while teaching activities are obligatory and rather locally visible. Therefore, it is rather surprising that not more academics prefer research towards teaching. Lately, teaching has been in the focus of quality assurance and evaluations. This chapter describes how much time academics spend on teaching and other functions that differ when classes are in session and in periods when they are not in session. It describes the institutional settings for teaching that regulate and support teaching activities. The chapter also sheds light on the individual perspective: the academics’ attitudes towards teaching, the diversity of teaching activities and at last, academics’ teaching and overall professional satisfaction are compared in an international perspective. To sum up, a multivariate analysis presents factors that influence the amount of time spent for teaching in each country.