“… the faculty would consist of professionals the students would work with as well as traditional professors ... by de-emphasizing or eliminating lecture-based courses, having their students more engaged in research and co-ops in the broader world …”
The problem lies in the teaching materials and the teachers. In most cases, faculties don’t have real world working experience, so they just provide their students with examples from text books. And text books are written by faculties who mostly don’t have real world experience. Also, the race in producing research artifacts is extremely distracting for the faculty members. Universities need to distinguish between teaching faculty and research faculty.
As a very simple example, a state machine is a very helpful design tool if used properly. But, I noticed almost none of the new hires knows that a state machine is best used in modeling the physical world, people keep using this concept in very inefficient ways (here is a concise version of what I teach http://www.drdacademy.com/?id=13).
"Also, the race in producing research artifacts is extremely distracting for the faculty members. Universities need to distinguish between teaching faculty and research faculty."
I disagree. When you make research faculty teach undergraduates, you are basically forcing them to interact with the undergraduates, which is a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Yes, it is mutually beneficial. But, I have seen how new hires are suffering due to the fact that they have not gained practical knowledge at school. So, there is a problem.
The problem lies in the teaching materials and the teachers. In most cases, faculties don’t have real world working experience, so they just provide their students with examples from text books. And text books are written by faculties who mostly don’t have real world experience. Also, the race in producing research artifacts is extremely distracting for the faculty members. Universities need to distinguish between teaching faculty and research faculty.
As a very simple example, a state machine is a very helpful design tool if used properly. But, I noticed almost none of the new hires knows that a state machine is best used in modeling the physical world, people keep using this concept in very inefficient ways (here is a concise version of what I teach http://www.drdacademy.com/?id=13).