I know A/Prof means Associate Professor, which indicates that the specialist also teaches and does research work. Is that generally a good thing? Are they necessarily more experienced and knowledgeable?
Specialists with A/Prof Title
browser on 16/06/2022 - 13:56
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IE - their $*** don't stink
In hindsight a/prof would be a pre nominal so maybe it does stink
My favourite is Captain(ret.) - no one gives a flying sh!t buddy.
Its pre nominal.
I use mine because it replaces Mr, not so much ego, more people are kinder to me actually, particularly when I wear flanno.
I find those that talk about the private school that they or they kids went to more of a toss. High school is adolescent day-care IMO
Profess
orional Bid Sniper?Trash teir Dr Sniper
Generally yes, though there are exceptions. Graduates of the Subway School of Sandwich Arts can, for an additional $6, get a medium sized drink and add A/Prof to their title.
On the other side of the coin, "Prof" firefighters will usually not use any of their equipment but instead attempt engage the blaze in a discussion of the finer points of fire.
Are they necessarily more experienced and knowledgeable?
Than what?
Someone who has just graduated from their Bachelors' study? Most likely.
Someone who has 20+ years of practical experience, but has chosen not to pursue that avenue? Maybe not.
Some professors are good and some have no practical bone in their body and are hopeless.
If you want to use them for something I would google them and see if there are feedback or reviews as to what they are like.
Your question needs far more context on what purpose you are evaluating them for and what you are comparing them to.
But in general, no, titles don't automatically confirm any level of knowledge or skills. It's a general suggestion that needs further detail.
There are many very intelligent bookworms that cannot operate in the practical real world (e.g. some Engineering PhDs are useless at actual design) and vice versa really good doers with no qualifications (one of our best Technical Directors for Engineering graduated with a Biology degree and did zero Engineering studying on paper but learnt over 30 years actual practical experience and now mentors qualified Engineers).
Even a Chartered Engineer, which used to be a prized title, can be cheesed relatively easily nowadays. Plenty CEs aren't worth a lick of salt.
I think you are trying to infer too much from a title.
I know this A/Prof who molested female medical students. Repeat offender but only got a slap on the wrist by clinical school. I think he was suspended from teaching for only like a couple of years. This was before the MeToo days.
Are you speaking specifically about Medical Specialists?
Need more context to give you a nuanced answer OP
Ranking; Dr, A/Prof, Prof
Probably just an opened ended question.
Was doing some research on surgeons and anaesthetists, noticed some of them are A/Prof.
Obviously all of them are qualified medical professionals, A/Prof would have to dedicate time to teach, supervise, and publish papers, etc. I would imagine that's a significant chunk of their time, not a couple of hours per week sorta thing. No doubt that's more knowledge to them, but also less time in the theatre, so was just wondering.
It depends on what year they teach and if it's undergrad medical or specifically for surgeon training. I was referred to a surgeon years ago for a hernia and the surgeon was a A/prof at UNSW. He was a nice and did a good job. It was done in a private hospital and cheaper as I was a teaching patient, so had the prof and a student surgeon do the work.
A/Prof is a job title. Most universities want more specialist doctors to teach than there are doctors wanting to teach - why teach when you can earn more not teaching and do fewer hours?
But of course some like teaching, some think they should 'put back' into the community. Maybe some arent great and actually profit more from teaching. Some, many, are probably winding down their medical practice to some extent having made enough money.
All the title means is that they are sufficiently competent for a university to believe they are suitable to teach some people at a particular level (could be first year beginners or could be post grad specialists). So its worth something. However, by no means is someone with a teaching title necessarily better than someone without.
Just keep calling the person Ass Professional. Refuse to correct yourself.
experienced and knowledgeable
In academia the measure of success is publishing papers so depending on where A/Prof is in that uni's hierarchy then it reflects that individual's experience and knowledge in publishing papers in their area of expertise. Note also that nowadays, most papers have many names on them and are typically very multidisciplinary because it's too hard now for one person to generate all the insights.
OzB (Prof)
outranks HVN (CEO)
Post nominal letters are all about ego stroking.