I would really appreciate a review on my essay. Thanks

The prompt is the following:
“Colleges and universities should require all faculty to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the course they teach.

Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider the possible consequences of implementing the policy and explain how these consequences shape your position.”


While it may be true that requiring faculty members to spend time working outside the academia environment brings some advantages, I would disagree with that measure, since I feel that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.
Firstly, the main objective of universities (besides teaching) is research, thus one of the biggest purposes of universities is to contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge. Since, most of the faculty’s available time is spent between teaching and doing research, requiring faculty members to take part in activities outside academia would, without doubt, lead to a decline in the amount of time available to research. Such decrease would lead to a decline in universities’ scientific production and thus to a decline in the rate of advancement in science. This is a very negative effect since most of the world’s scientific production comes from universities; furthermore, countries with a lower development index would be further penalised, since in that countries (for example, Mozambique) all the scientific production tends to be concentrated on universities. Thus, requiring faculty to spend time working outside the academic world would have negative consequences in terms of scientific research, that would affect more meaningfully less developed countries.
Secondly, a lot of the work done by university professors is related to investigation centres, which is not that different of the work that would be required outside the academic world, since both need the application of theoretical knowledge. Take for example, the works done in fluid mechanics at Imperial College: those works are a lot of times done with industry applications in mind or even with direct connection with companies. Therefore, a significant part of faculty already does work that is somewhat related or connected to the industry, thus requiring all faculty members to spend time outside the academic world would be unnecessary.
On the other hand, requiring faculty to work in the industry, would without doubt lead faculty members to get a better grasp of what kinds of skills companies desire from future employes. With that knowledge, faculty members would be able do adapt their teaching in other to close the gap between what is usually taught at universities and what is required by companies and the industry: for example, while universities tend to focus more on the theoretical side of things and the physical bases in which each process is based, the industry generally is more concerned with the practical applications of knowledge. Thus, forcing faculty members to spend time outside the academia would lead to an improvement of the student’s preparation for the work world.
Considering all that was stated above, it is clear to see that forcing all faculty members to work outside the academic world would be counterproductive, since I do not believe that in mosts cases it is necessary and most importantly because it would lead to a decline in research quality/quantity.