The trick is to have more basic research entities to replace all research universities in research that the universities are doing badly.
Acknowledging university research challenges
The assertion that universities are "doing research badly" reflects real, systemic issues. The challenges faced by academic researchers include:
Administrative burden: A significant portion of researchers' time is spent on administrative tasks rather than on actual research and teaching.
Funding pressure: Intense competition for grants, made worse by flat or declining federal funding, creates a high-pressure, "publish or perish" environment.
Bias in grant processes: Concerns have been raised about potential biases in federal grant review processes that may favor established researchers at prestigious institutions over innovative new talent.
Financial instability: Public universities face ongoing financial strains from reduced state funding, which affects research initiatives.
Grant applications writing professors leave real teaching of undergraduates to graduate students who are mostly concerned with their PhD thesis defense. Nobody is teaching seriously these days.
The idea that professors focus on grants while leaving undergraduate teaching to graduate students is a common criticism of academia, particularly at large research institutions. While the claim that "nobody is teaching seriously these days" is very strong, since the statement points to several real issues in higher education.
The incentive structure for professors
At major research universities (R1 institutions), the main priority for faculty promotion and tenure is research and securing grants, not undergraduate teaching.
Performance rewards: Faculty are rewarded for publications and grant funding, which provide salary support, graduate student stipends, and research supplies.
Research vs. teaching: The pressure to produce research and win grants means faculty must be strategic about where they spend their time. Time invested in grant applications or lab research is often prioritized over developing new courses or teaching undergraduate students.
Sabbaticals: In some cases, a professor who wins a major grant may use the funding to pay for a sabbatical, effectively buying out their teaching responsibilities for a semester or year.
The prevalence of graduate student instructors
Many undergraduate courses, especially large introductory-level classes, are primarily taught by graduate student instructors (GSIs) or teaching assistants (TAs).
Experience vs. knowledge: Studies show undergraduates often find GSIs to be approachable but sometimes view them as less knowledgeable or confident than faculty members.
Differing motivations: For many graduate students, the primary focus is completing their own research and dissertation, and teaching may be viewed as a funding requirement rather than a calling.
Supervision varies: The degree of faculty oversight varies by institution and department. Some graduate instructors have considerable autonomy, while others are closely supervised by a faculty member.
Outcomes of graduate student instruction
Research on the effectiveness of graduate student instructors has produced mixed findings.
Comparable results: One study found that lower-ranked instructors, including graduate students, were as effective as full professors in teaching tutorials at a Dutch business school (this why student numbers at business schools are falling).
Preparation and focus: Other research highlights that many graduate students receive limited training in pedagogy and may be less effective in conveying complex material, especially in upper-level and non-mathematical courses where broader context is important.
“Andy Kessler appreciates the "astounding" list of university research but conveys that the endeavor is now detached from reality.
The antidote, he proposes in "Beyond the Research University" (Inside View, Oct. 20), is to have basic research entities conduct the projects, allowing schools to get back to teaching.
That proposal misses the mark in at least three ways.
There are already many entities that operate as Mr. Kessler suggests. There are 42 Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, such as the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Los Alamos National Laboratory and several groups operated by Rand. There are hundreds of public-private partnerships and consortia, such as the Protein Data Bank and the Biomarkers Consortium, that are advancing the frontiers of biomedicines with university assistance.
Each is an example of diverse stakeholders achieving sufficient alignment to accomplish together what they couldn't do separately. Nobel prizes regularly point to such arrangements as foundational for progress, such as the recent award for folding proteins.
Mr. Kessler describes schools as operating separate from society. Yet nearly all top-tier research universities have extensive industry partnerships that are anchored in reality. This is also the case with many smaller universities and community colleges.
In any case, interdisciplinary collaboration needn't be poisonous. Progress depends on innovation at the intersection of the hard sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts. Take my expertise, labor and employment relations.
In conversations with human-resources leaders at Google, for example, I learned the company doesn't merely hire for HR degrees. It also looks for degrees in data analytics and in the humanities.
At Brandeis, we are integrating the liberal arts with the applied arts, giving students "a foot in the library and a foot in the street."
The 21st century will be defined by consortia that bring public and private stakeholders together, combining human values with rigorous research. We don't need to wait for Mr. Kessler's BREs. They are already happening -- and, far from being captive to the humanities, they value and depend on such insights.
Prof. Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
Brandeis University
Waltham, Mass.” [1]
1. Research Universities Don't Deserve a Bad Rap. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 24 Oct 2025: A14.
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