How to become a professor
Who is a professor?

By Mohamed Abdilahi Duale

One of the requirements that accrediting bodies demand when recognizing a university is that it has lecturers who have a degree higher than the one they are teaching. For example if the university is offering bachelors degrees, the body may demand that the lecturers should have masters’ degrees or higher. However, in the less developed countries (LDCs), due to resource scarcity, it is possible that the universities retain their bright graduates to teach the first year of the university as assistant lecturers and after many years of experience allow them to become lecturers. In addition, universities may recruit graduates (master degree holders) to teach as lectures for bachelors’ progammes. In addition to the qualifications requirement, the person who has the career expertise should be able to present lectures at a university. This person should be able to run his lecturing sessions effectively.

Furthermore, there are certain requirements to become a professor and the following paragraphs explain them.

To become a professor at a university has its own rules and regulations. There is a procedure to be followed when somebody wants to become a Professor at a university. From the beginning, the person must have a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the time he/she starts teaching at the university. The person starts as Assistant Professor and continues teaching at a university and being an Assistant Professor for a period of five years. After completing that period of five years, he/she has to write minimum three articles which are published in internationally recognized magazines. The articles should be a research done by the candidate and should be related to his/her area of qualification. The candidate sends his/her request to the council of the university. The council of the university may consist of Associate professors and Professors who will review and examine the quality and content of the articles. It is possible that the council may refuse the request since some people sometimes present articles that were published in small magazines or books they printed somewhere. If the council accepts the candidate’s request the candidate is given the title of Associate professor.

The journey begins once again and the candidate continues to be Associate professor for a period of five years and then he/she begins to write useful and broad articles covering the area of expertise that are published in internationally recognized magazines and continues teaching at universities. Afterwards, the candidate submits to the council a request to become a professor. At this time, the university council should be composed of Professors only. Once the university council truly accepts the publications as a valid and useful, the status of becoming a professor is earned and the candidate can now be called a professor. This process normally takes about ten to fifteen years to a hardworking and competent person to get the title of professor. Like the lord of the rings trilogy the journey ends here!

The opposite is true in Somaliland where a bachelor’s degree holder (or even worse a diploma holder), regardless of his/her capability of delivering his/her lectures becomes a lecturer at a university. In addition, some one who has a bachelor’s degree takes a teaching position at a local university and on his/her first day claims that he/she is a professor!

Furthermore, the story on the other side of the coin is different, everybody, who has not written anything is called a professor, which is in fact, does a character assassination of the profession of being professor at a university.

The question is where did we found the definition of professor that many people in Somaliland use? The people in Somalia (former South Somalia) that were colonized by the Italian government had the tradition of calling a professor any one who teaches like the Arabic word of USTAD (MACALIN) which they inherited from their Italian father! In addition, the people in Somalia (Former South Somalia) call a Doctor any one who graduates from a university even though someone can be given the designation Dr. if and only if he/she has a degree in medicine like physician or obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

It is indeed worrisome that many of the educated people who are teaching in our universities are misusing the word professor and thus making the educated people laugh at them. In addition, it is also very sad to see our universities not having a policy of who should be called a professor!

Therefore, it is of paramount importance to respect title of professor and avoid its unprofessional misuse .

Mohamed Abdilahi Duale.
Hargeisa Somaliland.

Maducale@hotmail.com

(Mr. Duale is a former Humanitarian worker of Save the Children Denmark and currently National Administrator for ECSALI project In Terra Nuova. He is also section director for Business Consultancy and Training group in Somaliland.)

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