So I return to my question, posed in this blog a couple of times now: what is a research-led University; what does it DO?  I am no closer to answers, but there may be some folk out there who have some: I am indebted in this to a blog entitled "Open Content Holistic Research Environment"; this is dedicated to "Open content research and how to do it".  

In a report on a UK Open University conference for their staff on “Making Connections”, the blog details some very interesting presentations by a number of senior UK academic figures.  In its own words:

 "Gill Nicholls, Pro Vice Chancellor [of the] University of Salford (and also the author of Challenge to Scholarship (2006)) ... identified the issues for academics and the convergence of research, learning and teaching - seeking to avoid the classic research v teaching to scholarship and its application to learning in a research-led environment, and how this can then feed in to the student experience. Her view from the literature is:

  • Research is learning for academics
  • Teaching is the promotion of learning to students.
...As a test of institutional commitment she suggested that a key is whether the institution plays a formative role in supporting (or blocking) the links between research and learning..."
Supporting??  OUTM?  I think I have had one seminar - one whole afternoon, in 29 years - on how to lead cooperative learning; other than that I've had no support whatsoever in teaching anything, other than the physical infrastructure!

 "At the faculty level this turns into specified staff roles and direct organisation - which then needs to be reflected in the curriculum with understanding of research-led learning (or she said she might prefer research-informed learning).  Defining research-led learning she said it will link up with:

  • Learner-centred education
  • Student-centred learning
  • Independent learning
  • Problem-based learning and case  study
  • Project work or project study. "

"Independent learning" - what a concept!!  Students actually expecting not to be led??  At OUTM??  Or, to be fair, at ANY Seffrican University?!  OK, they do problem-based learning over at Med School - but the initial implementation was apparently a disaster, and it's ended up taking MORE in facilitation/face time from the lecturing staff than they used to have to do, instead of freeing them up as it was supposed to do.  Or what they were told it would do, which may not be the same thing at all. 

"Gill also described a variation of a research-based learning environment – which applies into the programme as well as at the philosophical level (e.g.s are Dentistry and Medicine). Her argument is that making this more apparent to ourselves as teachers and our students as learners will enhance motivation and increase the participation level for learners. The implication is also that the knowledge base behind the subjects also impacts on how learning can be supported. If research can be shared we can switch from transmit to engage."

As the legendary Captain Jean-Luc Picard might have said, "Make it so...!".  I can think of nothing I'd like better in a teaching environment such as ours: as it is, despite my best efforts, my lecturing ends up being a guided tour through a catalogue of facts - we ARE a fact-rich environment Up North, you understand - which the students simply ask me to give them as a printed hand-out.  After I've authored what amounts to a full and profusely illustrated Web-based textbook, littered with links to fascinating self-educational material....  I just throw my hands up and give them what they ask for: a linear, simplified printed or PDFised path through the material so they can "learn for exams". 

Maybe we need to teach them how to learn...and to think.  For which, WE need to be taught - and we are not.

 "To move to research-led she suggested:

  • Design
  • Underpinning by research
  • Learning outcomes specified (not routine)
  • Student teaching methods – bring in research to challenge
  • Research methodologies in learning
  • Assess research competence
  • Visibility of integration of research activity and teaching
  • Students integrated into research culture of learning "
Has anyone noticed ANYTHING at OUTM that smacks even REMOTELY of any of the above, in terms of leadership?

Teaching: what evidence is there of "research-led" pedagogy, except possibly in the very narrow sense of exploring pedagogical methods in teacher training?   We used to have a Teaching Methods Unit: what happened to that?  No, what the bulk of us - uneducated educators - actually engage in is what has been called "Viral Professional Development" in the blog @Injenuity, which is something else entirely: methods which spread by word of mouth (or lately, via blogs...B-) at the root level, rather than being deliberately disseminated.  Particularly relevant to the Centre for Educational Technology, as it happens! 

Do we have any researchers actually leading anything at this institution?  At least one DVC formerly qualified, although he ended up doing things far outside what one could assume was his scholarly remit.  But he wasn't the DVC of Research, was he?  And Deans...shall we speak of Deans?  No, perhaps not - except to CENSORED..and then maybe not, also.  But you get my point: precious few! 

Mr Price, I hope someone has told you of our blogs...B-)

Time for someone or several someones to go put some money where the collective mouth is: either tell us what a "research-led University" is, AND go about implementing it - or drop the slogan.