Here I argue that it can be an awesome place to work, and has a lot to offer for students, academics, and society as a whole.

Universities as hubs for exchanges of viewpoints

Universities are the place where experts of their field meet with a new generation of future professionals, also known as students. The people doing research and lecturing often have unique expertise and are at the forefront of their scientific fields. Many are passionate about their research and sharing their knowledge through teaching. Each researcher brings with them the state of the art in their field, making universities hubs for innovation and knowledge. To make sure students learn all they need to learn, let’s not forget lecturers, people who have made it their profession to teach skills and knowledge to our students. Often, they provide practical experience and can keep teaching grounded to the professional environments where students will likely end up later.

However, university staff are not the only ones bringing something to the table. Students make it so that universities and the people who work in them are constantly in touch with the young generation, and learn to find a middle ground between the perspectives of the new generation of students, and existing structures and traditions. Students come in with fresh ideas and views, and contribute to how the teaching and research takes shape. Students also differ from each other greatly, which is why student diversity is so important for universities.

A special, and often undervalued group, are the PhD candidates, who are in a way still students, working towards their dissertation, but are also passionate researchers growing into their expert roles. PhD candidates become part of the institute and as such also influence how institutes work, sharing new ideas and making the transition from student to becoming the next generation of researchers.

Universities are the places where all these people meet and exchange ideas. Sometimes that leads to clashes, and it should, if those clashes are clashes of ideas and are resolved through discourse. Open dialogue and debate make the university a place where everyone who is open to new ideas can learn something.

Building the society of the future

Working at a university, you get to teach students, and this is a privilege that should not be underestimated. Teaching students provides a chance of making a difference in society, through shaping the next generation of professionals. This means that you can not only influence the knowledge students take with them into the professional field, but also the attitude and skills that fuels their further development and career. Personally, I feel that working with students keeps me grounded and motivated. It is rewarding to me to have these interpersonal connections where I get to play a small role in students’ personal and professional development, hopefully for the better.

Being independent rules

Another aspect that may play a role for many is the independence that you have as a researcher to make your own decision about the research you want to pursue. Although there are of course practical, ethical, and financial considerations, researchers are often free to pursue any research topic that they find interesting and relevant, and there is a lot of freedom to make independent decisions.

Similarly, there is a lot of freedom to strike up collaborations with whoever you want to work together on projects. This means that you can collaborate with people who are mind-blowingly smart, and often genuinely passionate and kind. I personally love how these contacts lead to intense collaborations, growing into professional friendships where you cannot wait to discuss certain research ideas with them. Actually, in the Team science movement, there is an increasing emphasis on finding supplemental strengths and building research teams that are greater than the sums of their parts. In this new way of working, researchers get to construct the teams they work in, creating autonomy in their working conditions and who they surround themselves with.

On an everyday level, the combination of tasks that most academic staff have, with some balance of teaching and research, provides quite a bit of freedom and flexibility to determine what to do when, to make your own schedule, to work from home, to do research stays, allowing for a lot of variation in work.

Conferences are great workations

International scientific conferences are a phenomenon on their own. Some are quite small, others are very big, but all feature a couple of days of intensive interaction with what’s new in the field and with colleagues from all kinds of different places, who may or may not be likeminded. It is the place where ideas are shared and challenged (with varying levels of subtlety). Usually, researchers do not only attend the conferences, but present their own research as well. Some give ‘classical’ presentations, others prefer to present their research as posters, inviting more one-on-one interactions with the audience. Conferences can provide new inspiration and ideas, and are great places to strike up new collaborations for the people who can handle being around a lot of people for several days in a row.

Working on society’s problems

Researchers working at the university try to expand humankind’s knowledge of how the world around us works. In doing so, we learn to understand the world and try to contribute to a better future. Sometimes this may be more evident from the subject of research, for some people it is more indirect, working on fundamental problems. The direct line of application may not always be clear, but fundamental knowledge may drive practical innovation later. However, other lines of research very directly tackle current societies problems, and invite societal partners to be involved in research. In this manner, universities are building parts of the society of the future.

Yes, this blog post is overly optimistic and ignores some very real problems in academia. However, universities are special places. They are often big, but their values fragile. This all makes it all the more important to foster and protect universities as places of learning, scientific discovery and critical discourse.