John Dewey said: "We need a system where clever people just get on with the
research that they wish to do without interference and being
constantly reviewed and assessed , to change direction whenever the
see a new idea or opportunity and to be given a modest background
level of funding to do it.."
Ireland is now going through this debate. We need a knowledge based
economy as we are now too expensive to support a manufacturing one. The
State is now investing large sums of money ~ 1000M€ in research in some
'strategic' areas. We, as a Geoscience community, are fighting to have
our resources, environment and continental shelf included as
'strategic'. The Universities gain 40% of their funding from research
and wish to promote it. A real problem is how does the traditional
multi-tasking academic fit into this changing environment? Are we to
move to separate research based and teaching based appointments? I
suspect that research and teaching based groups will grow apart and not
produce the desired product.
Any thoughts or experiences would be most appreciated.
Paul
--
Professor Paul D. Ryan,
Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences,
NUI, Galway, Ireland.
ph:+353(0)91750337 mb:+353(0)872956190
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