Students don’t always understand all the workings of a college. Yet understanding how higher education works can help you better navigate your education. So, this month’s poster is meant to help you understand more about what your professors do — for instance, did you know that teaching is NOT the only (or even the biggest) part of their job?
WAIT—PROFESSORS DO MORE THAN TEACH?!
SCHOLAR-TEACHERS. Professors have different job duties than your high school teachers did — though yes, teaching takes up about 40% of their work time.
However, half — or more! — of professors’ work time is devoted to research. Research can look very different for professors in different departments. For instance, English professors might travel to libraries that hold rare manuscripts, letters, or other materials, and their research can involve constructing and writing analysis of literary texts that they publish. Biologists’ research can involve laboratory experiments or field observations, and they, too, must write and publish their findings. Even though the forms of research differ based on the kind of work in which each individual professor specializes, research and dissemination of their work is a large and very time-demanding part of a professor’s job.
Disseminating scholarly research can happen in a variety of ways, including publishing articles in academic journals, publishing books, and presenting work at academic conferences. Conference presentations take much time and care to construct, and publishing papers usually takes even more time. Books? Those usually take years to write, and quite a while to publish, too.
SERVICE. An additional job requirement for professors is service. This aspect of their job can be very different for each professor, but service can involve duties like being a member of various campus committees; holding office in regional, national, or international scholarly organizations; or public service that relates to the professor’s areas of scholarly focus. However, many other types of service exist, as well.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER TO YOU?
PATIENCE. If teaching tends to be about 40% of a professor’s job, and if they spend 9 hours a week in class time, 4 in office hours, and 3 hours creating lectures and class activities, it doesn’t take much math skill to know that they don’t have as much time as they would like to feedback your work and get it back to you. Keep in mind, too, that many professors spend more time on teaching tasks than what these example hours suggest.
So, if you don’t receive speedy comments on work that you’ve turned in, give your professor the benefit of the doubt and some patience—they have probably been working hard on research and service. It’s also likely that they’re trying to balance their work with the other parts of their life (like parenting, caring for aging parents, cleaning house, doing laundry, grocery shopping, etc.*).
UNDERSTANDING. Knowing what your professors’ jobs really entail can help you value their work and time, and additionally, it can help you understand better what to expect from them. They want to help you, but they have to set limits to complete all their weekly work.
Additionally, if you are considering going to graduate school, you should understand the demands on your professors so that you can better navigate your work toward an advanced degree.
It’s especially crucial to understand what professors do if you are considering becoming a professor someday. Teaching is an extremely important component of this job, but a love of research in your chosen field is also an essential component of professorship.
FURTHER RESOURCES
Roney, Lisa. “What Do Professors Do All Day?” University of Central Florida, 2017.
Shepherd, Marshall. “Professors Are Often Asked ‘What Do You Teach?’ But They Do Far More.” Forbes, 2018.
Pitt Career Center. “The 19 Steps to Becoming a College Professor.” University of Pittsburgh. 2023.