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Neil Foster's avatar

Such an excellent post, Katy! As one who teaches a core course in Torts you have hit the nail on the head- we need more incentives for folk who are interested in this area to join the academy, and imposing artificial barriers like PhD's make it so much harder.

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KP's avatar

This isn’t just a problem for Law… I’ve seen it be a big issue in all the core humanities disciplines lacking good lecturers for core subjects. They’re increasingly being taught by inexperienced PhD students in some kind of ‘*insert* studies’ sub-sub field. A few do a good enough of a job if they have an ounce of sense and recognise that a decent teacher at that introductory level brings more students into that field. Many are just bored and terrible and sloppy with academic standards. The worst twist the content into their pet perspective, actively punishing students who disagree with them.

Having said that, when you are teaching Introduction to World Politics, and some students can’t find Italy or Canada on a map or mix up Africa and South America… you’ve got a real uphill battle.

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