We have an incredibly talented and patient person! Our associate professor with a doctorate degree receives about 17 thousand rubles per month, according to his employment contract with the administration of the leading university in the country (the situation is similar at other universities). At the same time, he needs to spend 1550 “contact hours” – lectures, seminars, laboratory work. There are 30 study weeks in the academic year – therefore, an assistant professor has to spend more than 50 hours of lectures each week! Associate professors I know study 5-7 different courses at the same time, and you must also present a study program of about 60 pages for each. Still, it is necessary to deal with science and be published in prestigious scientific journals. Is this possible?
I think yes. For example, Bach had to compose, rehearse, and then perform a new piece for choir and organ every week, according to his contract. Mozart, whose benefactor did not approve of his work, was ordered not only to compose more music, but also to dine with servants.
Of course, not everyone has such abilities. For example, Richard Feynman, one of the founders of electrodynamics and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1965), also engaged in teaching. After the first year of such studies, he concluded that he would probably never do science again. Teaching, according to him, requires great effort. And he published Feynman Lectures on Physics, one of the brightest lectures in general physics in the 20th century, with co-authors Robert Leighton and Matthew Sands.
I suspect that not all of our assistant professors have such talent as Bach, Mozart or Feynman. How do they live?
This question doesn’t just concern me. For example, a teacher from Dagestan, while at the head of the Russian government in 2016, asked Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev: “Why do teachers receive a salary of 15 thousand rubles, and representatives of law enforcement agencies 50 thousand and more? I believe that our task is no less important and responsible, especially since they work with the consequences of our mistakes and we have the opportunity to eliminate these causes if the government supports us. The Prime Minister’s reply went down in history: “Teaching is a profession and there are many great places if you want to make money, for example work.”
Yet how to live on doctor’s bread? Optimists explain that they have both dean and rectorate grants. And if the department head treats you well, you can get them. What if it’s not good? Only if you do your job well and don’t join the cathedral bureaucracy? This is a direct route to dismissal. Many of my acquaintances, associate professors, have already passed this way. For the transition from 3++ programs to 3+++ programs and certification by the Ministry of National Education and Science, an average university had to fill out approximately 1.5 tons (ie approximately 1,500 volumes) of paper required by the ministry. And who will do all this unnecessary work? Assistant professors of course! Now teachers are considering the next move of the Ministry of Education – 3++++ or 4?
The answer to the difficult “doctor’s question” is simple: “We’re on our way back.” Part-time jobs (up to 24 hours a day), tutoring, circles, various paid teaching services. I remember that at school we learned a verse about such an activity: “Drama circle, photo circle, / Horru circle – I want to sing, / For the drawing circle / Everyone also voted …” A huge field of activity for associate professors .
The role of the teacher is huge! I still remember the lectures that Yuri Nikolayevich Dnestrovsky gave on mathematical analysis. He doesn’t always speak clearly, precisely, and to me, but it felt like he was saying them. And there was an example where the number 27 appeared at the end of each lesson. In lesson 27, he was presented with a scroll – a thank you letter from our entire course. And it all seemed so easy to me. Years passed and we talked: “It is a very difficult job. It requires precision and inspiration. It is very difficult to attract the attention of 250 people, to describe it as easy and interesting. And when I realized that I was no longer carrying such a burden, I quit my teaching job.
I remember with great warmth our seminary Vyacheslav Ivanovich Telegin. His duties were difficult and he put the duos easily but he was a magician. An unusual picture, a nice trick – and then we “guess” the value of a huge complex integral, which of course we need to calculate. Such professors and associate professors have set the life path for many of us, helping us understand what is “our” and what is not.
True, times were different. The teachers did not “spin”, but seriously invested in the work they undertook.
Now everything is different. “Governments around the world need to hurry so that artificial superintelligence doesn’t come to power, replace all of our organs, and hit the “delete” button to reset our brains,” the DA said. Medvedev.
Who pays for doctor poverty and “torsion”? We are with you. I guess it goes without saying that it is not easy to find a good doctor and teacher anymore. But a special military operation showed that the problem was much greater. Now we need import substitution like air, and for that we don’t need people with degrees but experts who can make their creations work. They are missing a lot. Gaidar’s illusion that we could buy whatever we wanted vanished like a fog. For starters, they won’t sell us much, and you also need to be able to do a lot of things on your own. During the reforms, 68 military schools and institutes, military departments in most universities were closed. But it’s the people that fight, not the equipment that fights – we’re experiencing a severe shortage of truly trained commanders.
Talented young people do not become teachers, realizing the futility of this life trajectory. Therefore, we often teach in the wrong way and in the wrong way. About 20 years ago, I wrote about the “strong associate professor problem” – the scarcity of strong, energetic, principled people, without it higher education and with it the country collapses. Now this problem continues at full speed. It is necessary to value, protect and support teachers, and not to overwhelm them with bureaucracy and “torsion”.
Russia’s path to the future is connected with the transition from imitation to originality. Here, the role of higher education is huge. So far we have had the opportunity to understand who teaches how and what and to organize things properly. To move from the third world to the first, not verbally, but de facto, you need a first-class education. The older generation who grew up in a superpower knows a lot. He knows and can advise. It’s worth taking advantage of.
The miserable salaries of associate professors and “serf” employment contracts with unrealistic burdens humiliate not this class, but our entire country. You should get rid of this. Serious responsible work requires appropriate payment.
The proverb says we run slow, but we drive fast. Time to go. And then it will become clear how fast we can move in the new reality, where we can’t move without excellent associate professors working in the main workplaces.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.