After completion of the presentation, the participants will be able to know: - Meaning of Professor - Conduct lectures and seminars - Perform research in their fields - Teaches the following pedagogical rules - Provide pro bono community service - Perform consultancy functions - Mentoring: train young or new academics - Leadership in the academic arena - Collect funds-grants for research

1. Role of a Professor
Prof. Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam
Department of Anatomy and Histology
Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Science
SAU, Sylhet

2. Meaning of Professor
• person who professes to be an expert
• teacher of highest rank
• senior academic who holds a departmental
chair
• head of the department
• personal chair awarded

3. Meaning of Professor
• In Muslim civilisation, the Chair was
designated by the Caliph himself.
• Mostly through recommendation, the
Caliph made appointments to a
professorial chair (Kursi in Arabic) in a
jami’ (university or congregational
mosque).

4. Meaning of Professor
According to George Makdisi and Hugh Goddard:
“We still talk of professors holding the 'Chair' of
their subject" is based on the "traditional Islamic
pattern of teaching where the professor sits on a
chair and the students sit around him", and the
term 'academic circles' is derived from the way
in which Islamic students "sat in a circle around
their professor.

5. Meaning of Professor
• The term 'professor' itself is
believed to be a translation of the
Arabic term mufti, which meant
"professor of legal opinions"

6. Role of a Professor
1. Conduct lectures and seminars
2. Perform research in their fields
3. Teaches following pedagogical rules
4. Provide pro bono community service
5. Perform consultancy functions
6. Mentoring: train young or new academics
7. Leadership in academic arena
8. Collect funds-grants for research

7. 1: Lectures and Seminars
• The noun "lecture" dates from 14th century,
meaning "action of reading, that which is read,"
from the Latin lectus, pp. of legere "to read."
• "a discourse on a given subject before an
audience for purposes of instruction" is from the
16th century.
• The verb "to lecture" is attested from 1590. The
noun "lectern" refers to the reading desk used by
lecturers.

8. 1: Lectures and Seminars
• Seminar is, generally, a form of academic
instruction, either at a university or offered
by a commercial or professional
organization.
• This is often accomplished through an
ongoing Socratic dialogue with a seminar
leader or instructor, or through a more
formal presentation of research.

9. 2: Conducting Advanced Research
1. Research is defined as human activity based
on intellectual application in the investigation of
matter.
– Basic research
– Applied research
– Exploratory research
– Constructive research
– Empirical research
– Primary research
– Secondary research

10. 3. Teaching role of the Professor
• There are important distinctions between a
teacher, a researcher, and a pure
professor.
• The teacher's focus is on his students.
• His task is to convey a fixed body of
knowledge to his students and to worry
about the best way to do so.

11. 3. Teaching role of the Professor
• The professor's focus is on his subject.
• He "lives" in his subject and cannot easily
switch it off, even while lying in bed awake
or on vacation.
• He recreates the subject in his mind each
time he lectures on it.

12. 3. Teaching role of the Professor
• The researcher's focus is on the discovery of
new results.
• He is the creator of new knowledge.
• His nightmare is to get stuck in his search or to
learn that what he has found has already been
discovered shortly before by somebody else.
• Priority is very important to him and will
sometimes induce him to rush into print
prematurely.

13. 3. Teaching role of the Professor
• The professor's focus is on understanding,
gaining insight into, judging the significance of,
and organizing old knowledge.
• He is happy if he can find a new conceptual
framework with which to unify and simplify the
results that have been found by the researcher.
• Before going into print, he lets his ideas
ripen. Priority is not an issue for him.

14. 3. Teaching role of the Professor
• Professor is the mediator between the
researcher and the teacher.
• Without listening to the professor, the
researcher would soon become a narrow
specialist who loses all contact with the
rest of science.
• Without influence from the professor, the
teacher's curriculum would soon become
more and more outdated and lifeless.

15. 4: Provide Community Service
• Pro bono publico (usually shortened to pro
bono) is a phrase derived from Latin meaning
"for the public good".
• Community service refers to an act that a
person performs for the benefit of his or her local
surroundings.
– cleaning a park;
– collecting much needed items including clothes,
shoes, food, blankets, etc.;
– cleaning up the side of the highways or roads;
– tutoring developmentally disabled children for free

16. 5. Collect funds-grants for research
Professors provide consultancy service to
community, and to the government at the
time of urgent need:
–Political crisis
–Natural disaster
–Technological change
–Market fluctuation

17. 6: Leadership in Academic Arena
• Professor holds position of departmental chair
• Dean, Coordinator, Examiner
• Committee head, Supervisor
• Chair of Syllabus, Curriculum Committee
• Syndicate member
• Member of other decision making body

18. 7: Mentoring
• Mentoring is the process of helping another to
learn and develop their professional role.
• It is not simply being a model for newcomers to
imitate or an administrator or a management
supervisor responsible for the newcomer or a
counselor whose main task is to follow the
beginner’s agenda.

19. 8: Raise Money for Research
• Most funding for scientific research comes from
two major sources, corporations and government.
• Many professors spend their time applying for
grants for research funds.
• Grants are not only to carry out their research, but
also as a source of merit.
• Some faculty positions require that the holder has
received grants from certain institutions, such as
the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
• Government-sponsored grants generally have a
high status.

20. Tenure
• A tenured professor has a lifetime appointment
until retirement, except for dismissal with "due
cause".
• The reason for the existence of such a privileged
position is the principle of academic freedom,
which holds that it is beneficial for state, society
and academe in the long run if learned persons
are free to examine, hold, and advance
controversial views without fear of losing their
jobs.
• Tenure allows professors to engage in current
political or other controversies.

21. Role of a Professor
R o l e s % Wt.
1. Conduct lectures and seminars
2. Perform research in their fields
3. Teaches following pedagogical rules
4. Provide pro bono community service
5. Perform consultancy functions
6. Mentoring: train young or new academics
7. Leadership in academic arena
8. Collect funds-grants for research

22. Some Tips:
• A professor never retires.
• The knowledgeable and sensitive
professor represents himself to his
students not as a teacher only but as
teacher and student.