Honors and Other classes - taught by Profs or TAs?

SEA_tide
Sat, 18 Jul 2015 06:41:02 +0000

UA tends to have a larger number of classes taught by full time tenure track faculty than many other colleges and universities.

Many colleges and universities have gone to using contingent faculty. for teaching certain courses instead of grad students or tenure track faculty. UA uses a small amount of contingent faculty, particularly for subjects that can be taught by professionals in the field. For example, many undergraduate business law courses are taught by local lawyers and judges, one of whom has even served on the Alabama Supreme Court.

The business school will occasionally have PhD candidates teach summer courses and selected fall and spring courses during their final year so they have experience teaching.

I will say that having a PhD or being a tenure track professor does not automatically make one a great instructor. Some of my favorite instructors have been contingent faculty or were in their final year of PhD studies.