[graemep]

A lot of academics like teaching and think they benefit from it though. Richard Feynman thought so, and many academics I have met seem to as well. Not all.

I think in some subjects (e.g. literature) the greater prestige of research leads to a lot of pointless research and we need more teaching.

Of course, there are many good researches who are bad teachers. I am not so sure about vice-versa, but, nonetheless good teaching should be rewarded more, as should the ability to communicate knowledge in other ways (e.g. by writing books).