Nerd News: Tolerating Bad Teaching at Big Universities

Here is the blurb:

For all the talk about how research universities place an increasing value on teaching, a survey on tenure standards in political science departments finds not only that research remains dominant, but that poor teaching may be tolerated at doctoral-granting universities.

A national survey of department chairs found that superior research compensates for "mediocre teaching" at 55 percent of Ph.D. granting institutions, compared to 34 percent of master's institutions and 17 percent of bachelor's institutions.

I would say "What Fresh Hell Is This," except that is very old hell.

To be fair, though, this news article is specifically about political science departments.

My personal opinion: Research all you please, but if you can't effectively communicate and pass on knowledge to students, then WHAT'S THE FREAKING POINT OF BEING A UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTOR?