You have heard the assertion: “Research faculty do not care about teaching.” We have all heard this at some point. I heard it as an undergraduate, and it made sense to me. I had a lot of extraordinary professors as an undergraduate, so this was an assertion that was untested until I got to graduate school. I had the unusual experience of going from undergraduate to Master’s to Ph.D. all at one university, and so I became very familiar with the work of all my teachers over the years. Big surprise: the very best teachers were outstanding researchers who were known worldwide as innovative thinkers and articulate scholars.

Now that I have worked in universities for nearly 30 years, I understand why faculty research matters. Faculty doing research are at the forefronts of their fields, engaging with businesses and their professional colleagues in the development of the management techniques and business practices that will ultimately be adopted worldwide. This engagement with the future of business practice is something they take into the classroom and share with their students, helping them learn not only how business is conducted today, but also how it is changing and why it is changing.

I have colleagues who were involved in developing the U.S. accounting regulations governing options, who are serving at the SEC and are immersed in the investigation of companies who have backdated options, and another colleague who is serving as an expert witness on lease financing in an international bankruptcy involving a major hedge fund. Other colleagues are writing articles covered by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, while another colleague was on the team that investigated Enron and was also the principal academic consultant on the conversion of the New York Stock Exchange to decimal denominated trading. A whole group of colleagues are studying teamwork and productivity in medical research teams, and they are actively engaged in consulting with a number of major research centers on the organization and management of research efforts that are targeting some of the most devastating human diseases. These are big issues, and the people who work on big issues are doing research that has something to say when it comes time to develop regulations, develop standards for industries, inform the courts in litigation, and serve as expert consultants to firms. If they can explain something to a corporate board, under cross examination, or to a regulatory body, chances are they are good in the classroom, too.

There is another small irony that defies conventional wisdom: Great teaching informs great research. This is why great research universities are great teaching institutions. When faculty teach, they learn. The act of explaining something to someone, especially a complex topic, is a learning experience. The questions students ask help faculty formulate their own thinking, and the explanations a faculty member provides in a classroom turn into research ideas that can be pursued and refined in the course of business research. Astute faculty understand they learn in the process of teaching, and they engage their teaching in a way that contributes research ideas and exposes their students to the future of management practice. Great teachers make great researchers, and vice versa. And the very best faculty understand the connection between the two.

This matters for students because it is the difference between preparing for a job and preparing for a career. Faculty who are engaged with their fields of study are working on the future of business, and their students are going to learn not just about current practice, but also developing practice. Few new business school graduates are jumping into positions of great responsibility. It is the new graduate’s ability to understand the future and contribute to the firm’s success over the course of a career that determines advancement into leadership positions.

There are certainly wonderful faculty at many institutions who are dedicated to effectively teaching their students about current practice. They are often very good teachers, and they care about their students. But where is the preparation for a career that will last decades? Yes, the new graduate will develop a refined understanding of the professional track over a few years, but how fast will this person advance relative to someone who was prepared for intellectual leadership coming out of school?

Engagement matters in education. Students who are engaged through student activities, study groups, and specialized study opportunities like the University Venture Fund learn more, they build better professional networks, and they get better jobs. Similarly, faculty who are engaged are better teachers and they are better researchers.

Here are links to a couple of sites that rank schools based on faculty research. Notice how many “brand names” are at the top of the list. Great research and great faculty do go hand in hand.

The Arizona State University site ranks finance departments worldwide. You can select the time period you are interested in, but check out the top 50 for 2002-2006, the last five years.

The University of Texas at Dallas published a worldwide ranking of faculty research in 2005 that includes the top 100 universities based on faculty publications in leading business journals. The top 50 is, again, the brand names you hear about on a regular basis as the best places to go for a business education.

Whether studying genetics, semiconductor design or business, students who are preparing for a career want to acquire, and should expect to acquire, knowledge that will put them at the forefront of their professions and prepare them to lead over decades. The work the faculty do as scholars matters for the education they provide their students, and it just happens to also make them better teachers in the same way that a commitment to teaching makes them better scholars. If you are going to spend years, or just a year, getting an education, make sure you are getting the best available education. It is a career you want, not just a job.

Later.