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International competition even for university jobs


RegGuheert
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University Professors Outsource Grading Papers to India

It seems that our children will have international competition for jobs which traditionally were held by students on the campus.

 

I think the blog author makes a great point about outsourcing profs too. After all, if the substantial feedback from the assignments is going to come from Bangalore or New Dehli, what benefit are you getting from your tenured professor.

 

But maybe the question raised is why so many assignments are being corrected by TAs in the first place.

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But maybe the question raised is why so many assignments are being corrected by TAs in the first place.

 

 

Part of this is what I call the "sardine effect". Each year, all the rooms in the college get an extra chair or two added to them to put more people in a section of a class. This is so they don't have to hire extra profs which costs the univ. more money. Tuition here is ~8k/yr, and it is practically free for the univ. to add another student to a section of a class.

 

An extra prof costs anywhere from 30k- over 100k (depending on subject, # of years, etc). An extra chair costs ~$50. TAs normally get some benefit like tuition reduction or a stipend, neither of which come anywhere close to 30k. Many of the profs here have TAs, but use them for things like updating grade spreadsheets, or grading homework. Most of the profs (AFAIK) grade the actual writing assignments themselves.

 

At other schools, the prof/student ratio isn't as good, so unless the profs spend long amounts of time grading, they need a TA. Some univ. keep pushing profs to teach extra sections of a class, or making them teach several different classes. For example, a prof may have been teaching 3 sections of world history with 50 students each, and had to hold 10 hours of office hours, in addition to time spent prepping material for the class and doing research. Now the prof may be asked to teach 1 section of world history, 1 section of Australian history, and 1 section of Canadian history, each section with 75 students. Now their prep time for classes has multiplied, as well as their grading time, because grading 3 different assignments takes longer than grading an equal number of identical assignments.

Edited by jennifermarie
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Part of this is what I call the "sardine effect". Each year, all the rooms in the college get an extra chair or two added to them to put more people in a section of a class. This is so they don't have to hire extra profs which costs the univ. more money. Tuition here is ~8k/yr, and it is practically free for the univ. to add another student to a section of a class.

 

An extra prof costs anywhere from 30k- over 100k (depending on subject, # of years, etc). An extra chair costs ~$50. TAs normally get some benefit like tuition reduction or a stipend, neither of which come anywhere close to 30k. Many of the profs here have TAs, but use them for things like updating grade spreadsheets, or grading homework. Most of the profs (AFAIK) grade the actual writing assignments themselves.

 

At other schools, the prof/student ratio isn't as good, so unless the profs spend long amounts of time grading, they need a TA. Some univ. keep pushing profs to teach extra sections of a class, or making them teach several different classes. For example, a prof may have been teaching 3 sections of world history with 50 students each, and had to hold 10 hours of office hours, in addition to time spent prepping material for the class and doing research. Now the prof may be asked to teach 1 section of world history, 1 section of Australian history, and 1 section of Canadian history, each section with 75 students. Now their prep time for classes has multiplied, as well as their grading time, because grading 3 different assignments takes longer than grading an equal number of identical assignments.

 

Yes, exactly. I read the original article about this professor outsourcing, and it was distressing, but more in a "what is this world coming to" sort of way, not in a "she's taking jobs away from my child" sort of way. I also know that many universities (UW in Seattle, for instance, and many smaller institutions) have put a cap on hiring. But they are enrolling more students to make ends meet because of the economy.

 

Not saying it's right, but the outsourcing makes sense in a sad way.

 

At the small college where I work, it's a selling point that faculty will grade your papers, and boy do they. Constantly. I ran into a classics prof at a recital where our children were performing, and I asked him how his spring break was going (which was right about mid-term) and he said, "What spring break? Grading like a dog." I kidded him, asking why he assigned so much work and he clearly did not think that was funny. He said something like, "Peer expectations." So professors have more students, more variety in the courses they teach, fewer work-study positions to help out (funding was cut in that area, but the student need had increased dramatically), and the work just gets more intense. It's not sustainable. In fact, I gave a presentation to the faculty at their last senate meeting on another topic, and noticed as the woman presenting after I did was getting her powerpoint ready, and the topic was "Faculty Work Load." I wonder what will happen.

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