Why are college students taught by graduate students in 4-year public universities?
Shouldn't 4-year universities hire professors who already obtained PhD's in their fields and those who have teaching experiences? Why do they allow graduate students to teach undergraduate students in a large room with sometimes more than 150+ students? Can undergraduate students learn like that? In such a crowded classroom? What if they sit in the back of the room and cannot clear hear/view the instructor? How come community college class sizes are much smaller compared to the class sizes of 4-year universities?
darkvelvetrain2020-06-29T00:25:23Z
I have never taken a class taught by a grad student and never had a grad student teach any of my classes. It certainly did not happen in the Cal State or Georgia State system. I would be outraged and transfer out of any school that shafted me in such a way.
Trust me on this. Those graduate students are eager, and want good evaluations from students to use when they apply for jobs. They put a lot more effort into teaching a lower level course than a professor who is bored and reads from the same lecture notes year after year. It would cost universities a lot more to have tenured professors teaching all the classes, which would raise tuition, but this system is also beneficial to the students. In my department, classes are never more than 25 students, and graduate teaching assistants are monitored for quality. Tenured professors are not.
The little known secret is that many students are getting a better education at community colleges vs. 4-year universities. This is because community colleges require their professors to hold a Masters Degree, while 4-year universities allow classes to be taught by adjuncts who hold a Bachelor's Degree. Those adjuncts typically work under a senior professor who holds a PhD, but those senior professors almost always teach upper level classes which are not available to the general student population.
Most graduate students are planning on becoming professors. So they need practice in teaching among other things. But not all introductory level courses are taught by graduate students.