My student-centred view of academia
During my sabbatical year (yes, the one during the pandemic that didn’t allow me to travel much – no, I am not sour at all about it…), I had time to reassess who I am professionally and what I want to do in my career. In the end, I discovered that I am a cheerleader, encourager, and coach. “Yes!” I jumped off my chair and managed to wake Mr Charlie and Mr Toumba from their afternoon nap. “That’s who I am! I am an Economics Research Coach”. What does this entail, though? Students and students and more students. But wait. Is this not part of being an academic anyway? One of the definitions of the word academic is a person who teaches at a college or university. The mere definition of the word academic starts with the idea of teaching. An academic, however, is so much more than just a channel of transferring knowledge to students. An academic is one that produces knowledge and prepares those that will produce more knowledge. Coming back this year, I have started observing interac