More time on research means lower scores for students – study

I think this says something about attitudes today. As a student, I was responsible for my learning and have basically taught myself most things since the age of 16, with variable results. The issue seems to be that students are less self-reliant. I acknowledge that my own conscientiousness in responding to student queries and the like has probably resulted in my promotion stalling but there was no decline in student satisfaction in my most productive publication years. Good all-round performance does not get you anywhere (maybe it should not?) and being unsatisfactory in teaching often does not seem to matter in promotion processes. Perhaps a true merit pay system or discretionary increments would help? Much of the problem in the UK at least stems from the need for fast promotion because salaries have fallen behind.

Some universities claim to reward teaching, but it is nearly impossible to progress to Reader level and beyond on such contracts. So yes the system rewards research outputs only despite what universities might have you believe.