91抖阴

Reflections on research informed teaching by Dr Mark Hughes

There has been an increasing interest in research-led teaching and/or research-informed teaching within and beyond the 91抖阴.

This short report documents my own investigation into what’s going on, driven by my own intellectual curiosity and professional interest. As part of this investigation it is hoped to gauge and clarify how this long-running debate is evolving.

University and school level websites now provide an accessible window on what is happening in other institutions. In the past the relationship between research and teaching was far more implicit, conveyed by word of mouth or through confidential validation and monitoring documents. Today websites potentially highlight best practice,s enabling benchmarking with what other institutions are doing.

At the 91抖阴 a discourse of research-informed teaching has become very prevalent, however the dilemma is that it is difficult to know what is fleeting, what is idiosyncratic and what is more permanent and systemic (Eccles and Nohria, 1992).

By looking beyond my own institution, and making website reviews of UK HE institutions and their three representative bodies, the intention was to gain a broader understanding of the field of research-led teaching, to gain a focused impression of how the research/teaching nexus was being depicted and how the debate was evolving.

I hoped then to inform what we do locally. This report is not a literature review, however in reviewing website entries, a number of key references were frequently cited and these references have been followed-up and commented upon, as they play a role both in informing what is reported and legitimating what is reported.

In more deeply engaging with the webpages of other institutions, the semantics of the debate become apparent, with different institutions and specialisms favouring different terminology for what appears to be similar activities. The differentiations are more than semantic, they appear to signal very different ways of thinking about these relationships with implications for reporting and understanding the research/teaching nexus differences.

Dr Mark Hughes, former Reader in Organisational Change at the 91抖阴, 91抖阴 Business School.  

A background in reflecting on research-informed teaching

In the late eighties I first visited this debate, resulting in an unpublished paper 'Research as a vehicle for learning'. The paper reported upon small-scale research undertaken for the Polytechnic Certificate in Teaching and Learning.  

At the time I was a Research Assistant doing teaching part-time. First year undergraduates studying Business were encouraged to undertake research projects and their active involvement in research appeared to be beneficial to their studies. In the nineties, I secured Education Faculty funds to review the literature on research and teaching relationships. I approached this literature believing in research informed/led teaching, but the more I reviewed this literature the less convinced I became about the existence of convincing evidence in support of research informed/led teaching. I believed in the value of research informed/led teaching, but I was not convinced by the literature I reviewed.

I presented 'Research as a vehicle for learning' at the 1991 Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) conference and the literature review at the 2003 SRHE Annual Conference, which was themed around 'Research, scholarship and teaching: Changing relationships.' In reviewing the literature, and during conference presentations, I encountered Professor Lewis Elton. Professor Elton (Elton, 1992) passionately advocated scholarship (the critical interpretation of existing knowledge) as the often neglected mediator between research and teaching (also see Boyer, 1990). This exposure changed my academic life. However most individuals and institutions prefer to believe in the research/teaching nexus, rather than a more ambiguous research - scholarship – teaching interrelationship, so the focus here will be upon the research/teaching nexus.  

My paper 'The mythology of research and teaching relationships in universities' (Hughes, 2005) was selected from the SRHE conference proceedings to become the lead chapter of a book Reshaping the University, which was edited by Professor Ron Barnett and focused upon research and teaching relationships. Since then I have concentrated upon my own field of study - organisational change, in particular writing textbooks (Hughes, 2006; Hughes 2010) in the belief that through the scholarship of textbook authoring I offer our students and economic and social engagement clients a bridge between the research undertaken within universities and their teaching/facilitation of learning.

I remain curious to know how these ongoing debates are evolving. However, I acknowledge that my reporting is far from neutral, although it may be argued that interest in and promotion of research led teaching is far from neutral. 

Students of business make visits to example businesses studied by their research and teaching staff, here visiting the Shepherd Neame brewery.

First impressions when examining institutional references to research-informed teaching

There was certainly a lot of activity going on with a search, in 2016, for “research informed teaching” receiving 24,900 hits and a search for “research led teaching” receiving 46,600 hits.

In beginning to review these entries on some websites both terms were used, but overall “research led teaching” was far more frequently used. There were instances of institutional level pages highlighting the interrelationship between research and teaching across whole universities, in these instances discussions were often related to strategy documents such as research strategies and/or teaching learning strategies.

There were also instances of school/department level showcasing of interrelationships across a range of academic disciplines, although this showcasing appeared to be reported from the teaching, rather than research perspective of departments. In these instances the emphasis was invariably upon how research informed undergraduate teaching, rather than postgraduate teaching. An emphasis upon undergraduates is understandable given that they far out-number postgraduates, although the relationship is likely to be stronger with regards to postgraduates.

As well as universities, interest groups representing collections of universities were reporting on research informed/led teaching. It wasn’t tested but there were signs that within these groupings universities were beginning to deliver a consistent message, with signs of conferences and workshops informing this homogeneity.  

Significant resources had been invested in presenting information about research informed/led teaching on university websites (see Motivations below) which raised the question 'why?' The semantics of these debates quickly became apparent (see discussions of semantics and differentiations below).  In reviewing webpages many permutations which potentially skew the debate were apparent. 

The three columns show potential permutations in use. Whilst the web searches were based upon ‘research’, other words in column one also were used to convey something similar.

Column two was far more variable, as well as, ‘informed’ and ‘led’ which are the main focus of this report, there were instances of ‘enriched’, and ‘enhanced’ and ‘orientated’ in use.  

In column 3, ‘teaching’ was most commonly referred to, but there were instances of ‘teaching’ being replaced by other terms such as ‘studies’, ‘learning’, ‘inquiry’ and ‘curriculum’. 

One university might refer to Research Enhanced Learning, whereas another might refer to Research Enriched Inquiry.

It is also worth remembering that favoured language will vary between different academic disciplines. What emerged from reviewing website entries was an evolving debate in terms of the development of differentiations and classifications (see discussion of semantics and differentiations below). The key word search even revealed an informative website [trnexus.edu.au/ no longer extant] which amongst other things highlighted terms being used interchangeably.

• Research-based teaching/learning
• Research-led teaching/learning
• Research-infused teaching/learning
• Inquiry-based teaching/learning
• Research-informed teaching
• Research-linked teaching
• Research-enhanced teaching
• Teaching-research linkages 

Students in the trading suite with researching tutors at the university's School of Business and Law.

The final impression relates to the acritical way research and teaching interrelationships were being celebrated, as explained in the earlier 'Background' discussion.

Across the twelve pages of entries relating to ‘research informed teaching’ and the twelve pages of entries relating to ‘research led teaching’ only one entry critically questioned the potential relationship.

Christian Bueger and Huw Williams at Cardiff University had an entry with the poetic title: ‘Humboldt is dead. Research-led teaching in the contemporary university.’  

‘…research-led teaching has become more a myth than a practice. Our intent is to open a reflexive discussion of what research-led teaching can mean today, considering that the notion is crucial in today’s academic vocabulary but has hardly been put to scrutiny in a sufficient manner.’ [learning.cf.ac.uk/developing-educators/pcutl/ no longer extant]

What is intriguing about this isolated critical aside is that the rhetoric of research informed/led teaching appeared to place considerable emphasis upon critical enquiry: 

…whilst developing important independent learning skills and capacities for critical enquiry. [www.liverpool.ac.uk/eddev/iteach/research-led-teaching accessed 2015, no longer extant]

Our academics relish the prospect of teaching Hertford students, teaching them to think critically, independently and imaginatively about their subjects. [www.hertford.ox.ac.uk/research-teaching/we-believe-in-research-led-teaching accessed 2015, no longer extant]

A research-led approach can be used to build a curriculum which is specifically designed to enhance the students’ ability to develop critical and evaluative thinking skills and thereby support and 6  promote independent learning.  [www.southampton.ac.uk/.../StudentCentred,%20Research-Led%20Learning.pdf document no longer extant]

And through research-led teaching and assessment, we encourage and enable our students to develop valuable skills of critical and independent enquiry. [as.exeter.ac.uk/.../researchlededucation accessed 2015, page no longer extant]

The acritical treatment of research led/informed teaching whilst simultaneously emphasising critical enquiry is one of the paradoxes which makes higher education so interesting, but in terms of this report raises issues around what is motivating the extensive positive dissemination of the benefits of research informed/led teaching.

Motivations for articulating research informed teaching

It is very difficult to attribute motive when passively analysing documents. Yet, in terms of this review the why of dissemination is intertwined with what is being disseminated, so at the very least it merits acknowledgement.

Away from the PR of websites, there are ongoing debates about research and teaching relationships, informed by empirical work and scholarship, they have been going on for decades, they take place across the world and they will continue for the foreseeable future.  

Some of the websites reviewed referred to this body of literature and those references are reviewed in a later section (Understanding research/teaching nexus differences).  It might be the case that the websites speak to and present practicalities, whereas theory and empirical justification resides within books and academic journals. In reading the webpage entries, I had a strong sense that I wasn’t the target audience and I probably wasn’t. I felt as though the entries existed to persuade students or parents paying the tuition fees.

The discussions appeared to ‘add value’ to what was being offered, whilst this view is speculative, three of the sources reviewed appeared to support this position.  Phil Cook, Department of Politics & Denise Sweeney, Academic Practice Unit at the University of Leicester shared via the internet the following Workshop Programme, where we see an academic/educational rationale being presented in parallel with the commercial/business rationale:  

1. What is Research Led Teaching? – Research to Teaching v. Teaching to Research direction of fit – Activity – Consider definitions of research led teaching
2. Research to Teaching – Promoting students as active researchers – Activities – the nature and extent of student engagement in research activity
3. Teaching to Research – Enhancing research development of academics through teaching – Activity – feasible policies to promote evaluate research through teaching
4. Research Led Teaching and Branding – How an effective Research Led Teaching policy can support growth – Activity – how could research led teaching be used in branding your department? 

[www2.le.ac.uk/offices/...learning-teachingconference/ accessed 2015, pages no longer extant]

The second source was a Russell Group report Research-led learning: the heart of a Russell Group university experience, supported with full references which commenced with the following summary statement.

The culture of enquiry-based, independent learning in a world-class research environment is at the heart of the student experience in Russell Group universities. Russell Group universities are committed to delivering the added value of a research-informed learning experience, with all the resulting opportunities and benefits for students. We recognise the need to demonstrate how the benefits which flow from learning in a research-intensive environment are excellent value for money for students.

On page 18 the following statement is made:

47. Understanding and promoting the relationship between teaching and research helps to encourage parity of esteem between these related fields.

[http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/uploads/Learning-in-a-research-intensive-environment.pdf accessed 2015, document no longer extant]

As a lobbying group ‘promoting the relationship between teaching and research’ is a legitimate role, and within the report the important issue of promoting the value of universities to government is raised. However, is it legitimate for universities to promote the relationship or is it more legitimate for universities to research and inform others about these relationships? 

As someone who has always studied and worked in polytechnics/ex-polytechnics/post-92 universities I must declare an interest. In reviewing the websites, ex polytechnics appeared to be equally keen to promote research/teaching interrelationships as Russell Group universities. However, there was one university who took a different path. The University of Bolton (an ex-polytechnic) branded itself as a Teaching Intensive Research Informed (TIRI) University  

[www.bolton.ac.uk/Events/TIRI/Oral-Presentation-Programme-1b.pdf document no longer extant]

There is a clever pragmatism in such branding suggesting we do not have the financial resources of an elite Russell Group university and given our origins we are primarily involved in teaching, but that teaching will still be research informed.

A third source was Aberystwyth University with its August 2015 . In this celebratory piece, Professor John Grattan, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience and International related positive results in the Research Excellence Framework to positive results in the National Student Survey.

Motivations for promoting research informed/led teaching will vary, just as what we refer to as a university vary and even within a single university the homogeneity that senior managers promote does not exist, with some departments being far more research intensive than others.

There is an enduring belief in research informed/ research led teaching which goes back decades. The increasing marketisation of Higher Education appears to have motivated a greater articulation of this belief in research informed/led teaching. More positively in reviewing the webpages, motivations were not purely instrumental. There was a real sense of institutions and individuals conveying their passion for higher education and its transformational capabilities through discussion of the research/teaching nexus.

For example, in the following quotation from the University of Nottingham, they convey what their academics bring to the student experience.

It's not about the answers, it is about how to ask questions. We explore with our students that academia is not about condensing things into textbook-style information: most interesting is what happens between the lines of a textbook, and how the people who wrote it gained the information that appears in a textbook.  [www.nottingham.ac.uk/educational-excellence/index.aspx accessed 2015, page subsequently adapted]

In the following quotation, the motivation for research-informed teaching is conveyed through an analogy with evidence based medicine.

People who argue that teaching should be research-informed, tend to use the analogy of the medical profession: medicine is research-informed and this has contributed to its success, so teaching should be similarly research-informed (e.g. Hargreaves 1997; Goldacre 2013). [www.edgehill.ac.uk/scate/2015/04/20/research-informed-teaching-a-new-analogy/ accessed 2015, document no longer extant]

More radically in the following quotation, the University of Lincoln’s motivation appears to be to locate students within the production of knowledge and meaning, rather than just being the recipients of academic research findings.  

 is a development of the University of Lincoln’s policy of research-informed teaching to research-engaged teaching. Research-engaged teaching involves more research and research-like activities at the core of the undergraduate curriculum. A significant amount of teaching at the University of Lincoln is already research-engaged. Student as Producer will make research-engaged teaching an institutional priority, across all faculties and subject areas. In this way students become part of the academic project of the University and collaborators with academics in the production of knowledge and meaning. Research-engaged teaching is grounded in the intellectual history and tradition of the modern university. 

The University of Lincoln’s espoused institutional policies were certainly not the norm, but it does raise issues about teaching informing research and research informing teaching and whether we are interested exclusively in academic research or also in the research students undertake. In the next section, the focus shifts to understanding these differentiations and how they have been articulated. 

Understanding research/teaching nexus differences 

In reviewing university webpages academic references were often cited in support of different viewpoints on the research/teaching nexus. Whilst the intention here is not to review the literature, four references were frequently cited meriting further investigation in terms of their influence upon the debates.  

Firstly, three Higher Education Academy 9  Reports (available from www.heacademy.ac.uk) are highlighted (Jenkins, 2004; Jenkins and Healey, 2005 and Jenkins, Healey and Zetter, 2007), followed by a book chapter by Healey (2005) Jenkins (2004) as an education developer/researcher produced a report for the Higher Education Academy in order to provide a guide/summary of the research literature on teaching-research relations.

The intention was to enable informed discussion within universities and beyond about effective teaching being dependent upon staff, department and institution involvement in disciplinebased research.  Jenkins (2004) draws conclusions at the individual, departmental, disciplinary, institutional and national level.  

Relationships are like to vary at all these levels, as he warns: The issues are layered and complex. Relatedly, there is not a single teaching-research relationship, there are many relationships. Indeed, perhaps we overstate or distort these relationships by referring to ‘a’ or ‘the’ teaching-research nexus. (Jenkins, 2004: 30) In another Higher Education Academy report, institutional strategies to link teaching and research, Jenkins and Healey (2005) are far more prescriptive in seeking to support policy makers in institutions enabling linking teaching and discipline-based research more effectively. The report benefitted from international comparisons, learning from experiences in other countries. Recommended strategies from Jenkins and Healey, 2005:24 are summarised here:

Developing institutional awareness and institutional mission

Strategy 1: State that linking teaching and research is central to the institutional mission and formulate strategies and plans to support the nexus

Strategy 2: Make it the mission and deliver it

Strategy 3: Organise events, research studies and publications to raise institutional awareness

Strategy 4: Develop institutional conceptions and strategies to effect teaching-research links

Strategy 5: Explain and involve students and parents in your institutional conception of teachingresearch relations

Developing pedagogy and curricula to support the nexus

Strategy 6: Develop and audit teaching policies and practices and implement strategies to strengthen the teaching-research nexus

Strategy 7: Use strategic and operational planning and institutional audit to strengthen the nexus

Strategy 8: Develop curriculum requirements

Strategy 9: Review the timetable

Strategy 10: Develop special programmes and structures

Developing research policies and strategies to support the nexus

Strategy 11: Develop and audit research policies and implement strategies to strengthen the teaching-research nexus

Strategy 12: Ensure links between research centres and the curriculum and between student learning and staff scholarship

Developing staff and university structures to support the nexus

Strategy 13: Ensure the nexus is central to policies on inducting and developing new staff and to strategies to support the professional development of established staff

Strategy 14: Ensure teaching-research links are central to policies on promotion and reward

Strategy 15: Ensure effective synergies between units, committees and structures for teaching and research

Strategy 16: Link with related university strategies

Strategy 17: Participate in national programmes

Strategy 18: Support implementation at department level

In the third Higher Education Academy report 'Linking teaching and research in disciplines and departments' (Jenkins et al, 2007), there is an informative emphasis upon sharing best disciplinebased practice case studies and departmental policies.  

The central arguments of the report include  the ‘teaching-research nexus’ being central to higher education and that student intellectual development and staff identity can and should be developed by departments focusing on the ‘nexus’.   In his chapter, Linking research and teaching: Exploring disciplinary spaces and the role of inquirybased learning,

Healey (2005) offers a typology which appears to have been influential for individuals and institutions in addressing the semantic confusion which has tended to characterise debates about the research-teaching nexus.  In the chapter, Griffith’s (2004) differentiation between research-led, research-oriented and research-based approaches is acknowledged. 

Mick Healy (2005) approaches to the relationship between research and teaching

Many institutions draw upon a favoured typology developed by Professor Mick Healey who differentiated between research-tutored, research-based, research-led and research-oriented approaches in his article entitled 'Linking research and teaching' exploring disciplinary spaces and the role of inquiry-based learning which appeared in Reshaping the university: new relationships between research, scholarship and teaching in 2005. The strength of this typology is that it highlights how an emphasis may be placed upon either research content or research processes/problems and how this emphasis may be either student focused or teacher focused.

Research-tutored approach
This approach emphasises research content with students as participants. Student engagement is through evaluating and critiquing the research of others. Our researchers use this approach which is fairly generic within 91抖阴 Business School and within the 91抖阴.

Research-based approach
This approach emphasises research processes and problems with students as participants. Our researchers favour and encourage this inquiry-based approach to learning with its emphasis upon student research project groups and case study groups in which students learn through researching. Our PhD students exemplify a research-based approach with current doctoral projects including the relationship between earnings management and analyst forecast errors, a comparison of the employment of elder workers in the UK and Germany and the role of the projectors in project management history. PhD students learn through their research inquiries into these highly focused projects and invariably their supervisors, who are drawn from one of our four research areas, learn as part of these research journeys.

Research-led approach
This approach emphasises research content with the focus upon the lecturer. This is the classic form of research-informed teaching with our researchers sharing the latest research findings from the four research areas with their students. As well as their own research, our researchers regularly attend national and international conferences and in this way it is possible to share the latest research often even before it is published. In this approach, research is presented as information content and the textbooks of our researchers offer a tangible example of this approach.

Research-oriented approach
This approach emphasises research processes and problems with the focus upon the lecturer. Our researchers often contribute to modules and courses through research methods inputs; this may be through research methods modules or sharing their tacit research knowledge when supervising student research dissertations.  

The strengths of this table are the vertical and horizontal axis, with the vertical differentiating student-focused approaches from teacher-focused approaches and the horizontal differentiating an emphasis on research content to an emphasis on research processes and problems. Academics, disciplines and departments may be located/explained with regards to different quadrants. Rather than the global statements senior managers like to make about the importance of the research and teaching nexus in their institution, Figure 5 suggests all four types of curriculum are likely to exist in a single institution contingent upon, level of study, mode of study, discipline etc. 

What works in terms of dissemination of research focused teaching?

In reviewing many webpage representations of the research and teaching nexus, despite personal concerns about the instrumentality of some of these, overall they communicate academic’s enthusiasm for what they do, why they do it and how they do it.

Over the decades the research-teaching nexus has empirically proved to be illusive and claims made for the nexus can be contentious. The learning appears to have been that rather than a single overarching/convincing account of the research-teaching nexus, localised accounts and best practice cases are the best way of disseminating what enthuses us and hopefully our students.

The implication of this is that a centralised template within academic departments would be inappropriate in capturing the diversity of what’s going on. That said, previous dissemination and discussion has be hampered by inconsistent research and teaching language in use. What works in terms of webpages is quite personal, but these are my own favourites.

Student Vox Pops

The danger with the research-teaching nexus is that institutions and academics talk it up, but students are left out despite being the intended recipients. University of Bradford used a collage of short pithy quotations from students which conveyed what the nexus meant to them. [www.bradford.ac.uk/educationaldevelopment/.../LS_Vox_Pop_MC-(2).pdf document no longer extant]

Academic Testimonials

I like the idea of academics saying what research informed teaching means to them, ideally being candid, rather than self-congratulatory. There was a good example of the Pro Vice Chancellor at Bournemouth  in a blog at his institution.

Images and Graphics

Underpinning notions of research informed teaching are important considerations about philosophies, paradigms and perspectives. However, in communicating interest in research informed teaching these are less useful than graphics such as Mick Healy's table above, which give people visiting a webpage a quick overview mapping out the debate in an accessible manner.  

Final thoughts on research informed teaching

The style of this report has been intentionally exploratory rather than conclusive in order to gauge as openly as possible what is going on.

I have engaged with these debates which are integral to higher education in previous decades and reengaging with these debates revealed that these debates have maintained their vibrancy.

In the past these debates were between academics and between institutions and policy makers (there has always been a funding sub-text to the debate) and what appears to have changed in the current era is that these debates have become far more public (reflecting a new student marketing sub-text). This has partially been enabled by the internet. We did not have the university websites we have today in the eighties. However, more proactively institutions appear to be explicitly promoting the research/teaching nexus as part of their offer to potential students.

This is understandable, if you believe in higher education you probably believe in the research/teaching nexus, I certainly do.

The dilemma is that going public polarises positions, as mentioned previously the treatment across the websites was almost exclusively acritical (see Motivations section), ironic given that advocates of the research/teaching nexus believe in and seek to encourage critical inquiry.

The debates featured here may be likened to paddling at the seaside, it is initially easy and pleasurable and then suddenly the beach plateaus and you are deep into colder and darker waters. The danger is that the PR speak around the research/teaching nexus overlooks the colder/darker waters of serious academic engagement.

In looking to the webpages it was encouraging to see many academic references being invoked in support of the different positions being taken. However, even within this small sampling of what has been written the breadth of philosophies, paradigms and perspectives being invoked is apparent (colder/darker waters).

The dilemma is that an institutional, department or research leader may not have the luxury to fully engage with this breadth of literature, requiring them to encourage a research informed approach, whilst potentially being uninformed fully about the research/teaching nexus literature.

I am sharing my own concerns as much as anything here, in this small scale investigation I have been struck by the fragmented and contradictory nature of literature that I encountered.  

The explicitly acknowledged websites which have informed my studies I recommend to colleagues wishing to delve deeper, once you have had a ‘paddle’.  

The first website was the personal website of Professor Mick Healey. His academic background was in geography, but latterly he described himself as a higher education consultant and researcher. He has consistently engaged with and informed the debates featured here and his bibliography offers a good starting point for anyone wishing to engage with the literature.

The second recommended website is the Higher Education Academy, there are many reviews and resources related to the research and teaching nexus, Alan Jenkins 2004 review  is a good starting point.

The third website (trnexus.edu.au/ no longer extant) was strictly outside the scope of my review, given that it is based within Australian universities. However, it highlights that UK debates featured here are mirrored within other countries. The full title is The Teaching – Research Nexus: A Guide for Academics and Policy Makers in Higher Education.  It is the antithesis of some the PR based accounts reviewed, but its critical inquiry tone is refreshingly different and as they favourably cite my work they are to be commended.  

In summary the researching/teaching nexus is integral to higher education. There is an extensive literature informing these debates, but please do not assume that a consensus empirically informed understanding of the nexus exists. The nexus is likely to vary in different types of university and even within a single university in its different constituent departments.

It can reasonably be anticipated that within the 91抖阴's teaching researchers, considerable differences will exist. The label 'nexus' acts as an umbrella for a series of different yet related debates, characterised by differentiations such as; research-tutored, research-oriented, research-based and research-led. Each of these differentiations has implications for teaching and learning and most importantly the student experience of research. A member of the university may be undertaking any of the four categorisations, they are not hierarchical instead they signal the need to do what is most appropriate.   

Research informed teaching, a personal reflection by Bob Smale

My teaching falls broadly into two areas which have been informed by my participation in research activity. In the first area, my teaching of employee relations at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels has benefited from my research entitled 'trade union identities and the role of niche unionism’, which has recently been submitted as a doctoral thesis.

This research has led me to read more widely and to conduct primary source research including a trade union website survey, questionnaire and interviews with trade union officials. This informs my teaching both in terms of including some of my own research data in my materials where this is appropriate, but also by being able to draw upon my findings in discussions with students.

My second area of interest relates to personal, professional and student development. A number of pieces of pedagogic research conducted by various combinations of Julie Fowlie, Sue Will and myself contributed to the development of a first-year undergraduate core module delivered to business students at 91抖阴 Business School, currently known as ‘Developing academic and employability skills’ and a final year core module entitled ‘Managing and developing people’. This in turn led Julie Fowlie and I to write a published text book, ‘How to succeed at university’, covering the development of personal, academic and employability skills. The first edition was published in 2009 and has sold over three a half thousand copies with the second edition being published in April 2015.

A student view of research informed teaching

“Going to university has been a huge achievement for me, however it was very scary at the same time. I was not sure what to expect and I knew I would face many challenges on the way.

Just after I was accepted at the 91抖阴, the flood of excitement started. I was so happy however the fear got bigger. I did not want to fail. The university provided us with a reading list for the first year. I came across a book called ‘How to succeed at university’. I bought it immediately as I knew I needed to prepare myself for university life first before reading any other books. I needed to understand what this new journey was about and what I should expect and where I needed to develop myself.

The book was absolutely amazing and I was glad I read it. With every chapter it prepared me, gave me confidence, made me think and supported me all the way. There was guidance on how to write essays and reports, how to construct arguments and how to structure my ideas. Something I was very afraid of doing as I had not done this before.

This book has served me well during my module called Developing Academic and Employability skills. This is a core module for all first years and helps them to settle into the university, organise time to study effectively and it also looked at a few problems students may face such as finance problems or house mate problems. Furthermore, guidance for how to handle stress was given and many ideas about how to be interesting candidates when applying for jobs. This is a much-needed tool for any student as they will be job hunting at the end of their degree and all students should start to think about building their CV from early on.

I have found this book extremely helpful in my first year. I read it before university and referred back to it many times during my first year. I would recommend it to every student going to university. Higher education is a step up; a new environment with new challenges. You want to be prepared because you want to succeed at university.”

Lucie Kadidlova

How to succeed at university is written by 91抖阴 lecturers Bob Smale and Julie Fowlie. The book offers personal, academic and vocational advice and is a useful companion for all undergraduate students.

Research informed teaching, a personal reflection by Dr Eugenia Markova

I have a long record of experience with conducting scholarly projects in the area of labour markets, migration and employability, relating strongly to quantitative methods, economics, and business studies, and of bringing the results of my research into my teaching.

I have investigated and coordinated the UK research and report of the EU-funded project ITHACA on integration, economic, and social capital transfers. This project, as well as other similar ones in the past, have been of particular interest to my students on dissertation modules, providing them with real-life examples of research strategies, quantitative methods for primary data analysis and most recent employment data for the UK. I have used the project-background paper as an example of a literature review in the dissertations of my final year students.

My most emblematic examples of bridging research and teaching are to be found in the supervision of doctoral students with two recent completions on:

• the minimum wage and non-wage benefits of migrant workers in the UK and,
• migrant integration in the Athens area of Greece.

A further personal reflection by Dr Mark Hughes

My academic career began as a Research Assistant in 1987 when I was asked to do some undergraduate first year teaching. This was different to many of my colleagues who moved into research as part of successful lecturing careers. I was always asking what do I bring to the classroom as a researcher and that question has remained with me ever since. I wish to chronologically share a few moments over the decades when the intangible nature of the research/teaching nexus seemed to me to be at its most tangible.  

In the late eighties and early nineties we supported and encouraged undergraduates into forming research project groups, they would research a topic that interested them, presenting their findings verbally and through a written report with the assessment counting towards their module mark. I can still remember the energy around those research groups, there was always a mixture of laughter and tears, but invariably the learning appeared to be meaningful for the students. One of the subtexts of what we were doing was to introduce students to our own research processes, so that they would understand the emphasis we placed upon research-based studies in later years.

Bibliography of resources on research informed teaching in Higher Education

Boyer, E. L. (1990) Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. New Jersey: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Eccles, R.G. and Nohria, N. (1992) Beyond the hype: Rediscovering the essence of management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Elton, L. (1992) Research, teaching and scholarship in an expanding higher education system.  Higher Education Quarterly, 46 (3): 252-268.

Griffiths, R. (2004) 'Knowledge production and the research-teaching nexus: The case of the built environment disciplines.' Studies in Higher Education, 29 (6): 706-726.

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