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 interactions with students and how it made me feel afterwards. This is how I knew that I had found my call. But the moment one says they know it all and reach the ultimate mastery of something, that’s the point in time they lose everything. So, I decided to keep my radar open and learn from seasoned academics I admire for their scholarly career and ethos. Here are three examples during ideas sharing and discussions that showed me their path was successful because they have always trusted and supported their students. (No names were used here, but they certainly know who they are 😉 ).

Listen to your students. Listen.

A typical meeting between students and academic staff (raise your hand if it sounds familiar):

Student enters the office

Supervisor turns and asks the student to take a seat

Supervisor asks “how can I help you today?” [ Red flag…why is the assumption that the student seeks help and why is the assumption that the academic CAN help?]

Student starts talking….

 Interruption – Supervisor “let me stop you there to explain to you….” Blah blah blah…

 Student stops talking….stops asking…

 Student leaves the office thinking “All my thoughts were wrong. Everything I do is wrong. I am wrong”

 So that dear colleague of mine advised us to listen to the students, not to quickly respond to them and get them out of our office but to really listen. What stayed in my mind from that talk followed “If their PhDs include only what the supervisors already know, then what’s the point? The PhDs are supposed to produce new knowledge, make contributions and take the field a step further”. That is so true – on the one side, we tell them to be innovative and on the other side, we tie them to what we do and what we know.

 

I have collected more than 20 PhD theses in my bookcase, now I want to find them and see what they have done with that knowledge.

This academic (too close to my heart) is retired now and realized the collection of PhD theses books was gathering dust in the bookcase. The majority of us would have just thrown it into recycling; best case, we might have taken a few pictures to remember them.

No!

This academic, a real academic at heart, made an effort to locate all the graduates and either deliver them or send the books to them. And that also attaching some photos of their times together.

That reminded me that our students become families; we spend time with them, we are involved with their lives, and for the supervisors, they are one of many, but for them, we are the only ones. But each and every one of them teaches us something – something of academic, cultural (I will not forget eating Mopani worms!), and personal content, something that has made us who we are today both as academics and as people. “It does not cost anything to be nice”, I read the other day…Well, it also does not cost anything to show our kindness, be human and care for our students.

 

My students’ success is my impact

“But I want to make an impact with my work!”

“And you do, but in ways you don’t realize and see now”, this dear mentor responded.

And I stopped there with my mouth open, wondering.

“Your students are your legacy”.

Such a profound thought!

Yes, my research can make an impact; my research can break the barriers of present knowledge; my research may change policies and lives. Maybe not, but maybe yes!

But think of the multiplier effect of our legacy. Imagine if the twenty PhD graduates in an academic’s career (on average) can produce another twenty each, or indeed, they won’t all become academics, so less than 400 new PhD students, but imagine the impact of their research and their work can make to our world!

 

 

Being an academic is not each (which job is?), but for me, being an academic is much more than a profession. We are responsible for the minds of the future; this is not to be taken lightly. Research and teaching are important, but actively and by example, mentoring the youth is invaluable.

We are responsible for preparing the youth well for the world; prepare them as academics, professionals, critical thinkers, and responsible human beings.

And as I said before, “treat them well; they might be your future colleagues…”