A candidate for a job at a university may be asked about his/her view about education vs. research, or such a candidate may ask the same about the university. Either way, the answer always seems to be that both are important, and that good research makes education better. However, in practice, there can be a lot of variation in how much emphasis is placed on each.
When I first came to my job, I felt that faculty and staff worked together to serve students. Now I still feel that my purpose is to serve students, but somehow this seems to have become a minority viewpoint. It seems that increasingly, the prevailing view is that the purpose of faculty is to write grant proposals, and the purpose of staff is to serve the faculty.
On more than one occasion, people have commented that we should not emphasize undergraduates or education too much in our publications or web site, because if we do, people will think that we are not a prestigious research university.
Sometimes I feel that faculty think students are good to the extent that they work on research, but that otherwise, anything faculty have to do dealing with students (such as advising or teaching or meeting prospective students) is considered an interruption to their real work.
I do think research is a good thing. It's good to learn more about the world, to explore ideas, to find out what does and doesn't work. That's what research should be about, though too often it seems to be more about getting money, not only in the university context, but also in business and in nonprofit organizations.
Though I think research is a good thing, I think that universities are educational institutions, and as such, the primary goal should be education. I do believe that research is a part of education. We want to teach students to be learners, and that's what research is, it's the process of continually learning more about the world.
I know that research prestige may attract the best faculty and students and may open doors for graduates of the school. I know that money is needed in order to run a university. Perhaps it's because I'm not in the position of having to run a university, that I can afford to be idealistic. But in my view, our goal should not be to bring in research funding but to educate students.
