One critical issue in the academe nowadays is the requirement that soon all teachers in college should have at least a master's degree. Tertiary teachers who have been in the profession for more than twenty years are required to take master of arts (MA) or master of science (MS) or else they will have to go.
One contention is that should they be replaced by new teachers who have MA / MS degrees but with very limited years of practice? Or with those aspiring teachers who may already have PhDs but had a hard time passing the professional licensure exam in their professions?
What is ideal of course, is to have teachers with the qualifications and the experience to teach in college. A nursing teacher with advance degrees in the nursing profession plus considerable number of years in practice. For how can a nursing professor teach the students to become nurse practitioners if he himself does not have enough clinical practice? Or how can a nursing professor teach effectively if he does not have deeper understanding of the concepts, theories and paradigms in nursing?
Sometimes its futile to even talk about such an issue.
But what should the colleges and universities do to the oldies who do not have advance training and/or degrees?
I guess they have to find a way to level the playing field.
