Stop saying that your students aren’t as good as the ones at UofC!
…Part Five in the series on “Becoming a University”
As Mount Royal University makes the transition from a college to a university……
I have lost track of how many times I have heard MRU faculty use this excuse to explain why they don’t demand more of their students, or why they themselves don’t do more innovative things in their classrooms. Aside from short-changing their own students, such self-deprecating attitudes will help to cement MRU‘s position as a local institution. Many faculty at MRU have an inferiority complex that is quite self-defeating.
In one position I applied for, the department chair actually thanked me for “considering their little school” when I was turned down. The person who was hired instead lasted barely a year.
I have taught at both the UofC and MRU and there are some very bright and promising students at both. The biggest difference is NOT in the quality of the school or its students; it is attitude.
The UofC largely ignores the lower 1/2 of every class, whereas MRU actually tries to help them. That’s one of the things that sets MRU apart – they care about all the students. Thus, since the UofC doesn’t even SEE those students, its notions of self-worth are based only on the most capable students. Most of the top students at the UofC did NOT come because of the school’s reputation – they are there for economic and personal reasons – for most, Calgary is home.
With a bit of help, MRU could easily replace the UofC as the university of choice for those students. Provided MRU can establish a reputation for teaching and research that can actually be heard beyond the province’s borders, it WILL attract more and more top students.
Playing up MRU’s unique desire to conduct leading edge research with undergraduates could turn it into a highly desirable school. Actually following through on this desire by developing faculty who are well-informed in their areas of research and who know how to supervise is an important part of this.
