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There is a general consensus among people that professors at universities are wasting time on useless research, not teaching sincerely and are whiners. According to Dan Patrick, a State Senator, along with a lot of good professors, we also have a lot of whiners.

The recent budget has imposed further cuts on higher education and reformers are busy working out means to strengthen the system by bringing about changes geared more towards teaching and enhancement of productivity rather than on research. In other words, there is a strong effort to make higher education more student and customer focused rather than favoring faculty.

There is a strong movement towards this goal in Texas where Jeff Sandefer, a rich entrepreneur has proposed a “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” to Gov. Rick Perry. This proposal motivates Texans to bring about a fundamental change by implementing a voucher system in the universities and by starting their own accrediting agencies.

Among regents, there are many topics that form a part of serious conversation including the most preferred solution of awarding bonuses to professors for good teaching performance. The spirit of reform is welcome by many academics. However they feel that certain ideas doing the rounds are detrimental to the research enterprise in Texas. Some academics are worried by the debate’s tenor that paints of picture of faculty as being overtly pompous and obsessed with research and reluctant to teach under graduates.

According to James Aldridge, a University of Texas Pan American psychology professor, north of Nueces is where all these shells are being lobbed from and we do not yet know who is behind this. He says that professors are being unfairly accused of doing something wrong and getting away with something. He says that his working hours per week are between fifty and sixty and in addition to researching and reading, student mentoring and sitting on committees he takes at least three classes per semester.

He also says that over the past few years, he was forced to choose multiple choice tests over essays and spend lesser amount of one-to-one time with his students even as the number of students in the advanced classes tripled.

There is more expectations by the administration from researchers as they are expected to post at least one article on peer reviewed journal every year. Professors are also responsible for bureaucratic duties like collecting data for reports.

A businessman from San Antonio Gene Powell is also the UT board of regents’ chairman. He is taking efforts to boost online education and to enhance productivity and has appointed two task forces to work towards this goal.

Sandefer says that whether we like it or not, change is imminent. Traditional higher education may well be on its way out even as online education is fast gaining in popularity. Price is a major consideration here as entrepreneurs are offering highly affordable, quality educational products.

Classes are growing exponentially as curriculum is created by expert faculty and mentors offer $15 an hour coaches. With minimal faculty expansion, universities such as the Arizona State Universities are able to use this model to add at least 23,000 students.