personal answer – top-5 problems of university education

Students in TDT4140 – Software Engineering ask about  top-5 problems of university education from the viewpoint of professors or teachers

This is a very broad question that can take years to answer. I choose to focus on the specific problems I have encountered as a teacher in the period 1992 – 2013

1.  difficult for me to develop written exams. expecially at NTNU that exams have to be developed in 3 different languages (none of them being my own).
2. difficult for me to learn the context of what the students expect and know – I have never been teaching in the university where I have studied, it always seem to me that my colleagues who had been students in the same university know more than me.
3. difficult for me (who always had a lot of duties in family life, research and more and more administration) to follow computer science trends in a way that the teaching content and method are up to date with respect to technology, industry, and society needs
4. difficult to accept critiques in a  constructive way
5. difficult to cooperate with other teachers and assistants, even if you are willing to cooperate, it can be difficult to cooperate when the tasks are so challenging

I think I have been a good teacher in Experts in Team courses that I gave for more than 10 years. I like to communicate in an interactive way and let the students speak and work rather than talking to them for hours.