Academic Decline in Universities (2): The Role of Professors

     The second factor which contributes to academic decline is the professors. Nowadays some professors don't take their jobs seriously, they do a cursory job and in some cases they whitewash the whole job. Some professors never update their information; as a result, their knowledge is not up-to-date: it is usually out-of-date. Unfortunately some of them do not have a deep sense of responsibility. Several of them have to handle several jobs at the same time. This is because their future is not secure. They don't do a lot of research and don't keep up with the latest developments in their fields. They don't put the students under pressure and they don't give their students proper assignments. In fact they set a bad example for their students.
     However, I don't put all the blame on professors. Maybe they cannot swim upstream. Higher education in Iran suffers from mismanagement and lack of planning and needs fundamental changes. Learning strategies in Iran are mainly based on memorization. Students don't usually learn through practice and experimentation; all they do is to cram their heads with facts and figures.