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Re-thinking research-intensive universities in the ‘age of the student’

Re-thinking research-intensive universities in the ‘age of the student’. Context Critiques of RIUs New focus on teaching Educated guesswork Potential implications. 1. CONTEXT : The ‘age of the student’ Minister for Students. Four regulatory objectives:.

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Re-thinking research-intensive universities in the ‘age of the student’

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  1. Re-thinking research-intensive universities in the ‘age of the student’

  2. Context • Critiques of RIUs • New focus on teaching • Educated guesswork • Potential implications

  3. 1. CONTEXT: The ‘age of the student’Minister for Students

  4. Four regulatory objectives: All students, from all backgrounds, and with the ability and desire to undertake higher education: • Are supported to access, succeed in, and progress from, higher education. • Receive a high quality academic experience, and their interests are protected while they study or in the event of provider, campus or course closure. • Are able to progress into employment or further study, and their qualifications hold their value over time. • Receive value for money.

  5. 2. CRITIQUE OF RIUs “Universities need a ‘cultural change’ towards teaching…as a survey of UK undergraduates showed they were being set less work and received notably less tutor feedback than did their peers 50 years ago.” Former Universities Minister, David Willetts

  6. “Skilled researchers and effective teachers… have no relationship at all” (study by two Northwestern University faculty) • Adds another perspective to a conversation that “has troubled research universities for years: whether an emphasis on scholarship comes at a cost to quality instruction” Inside HE – Jan 27th 2017

  7. Does research conflict with teaching? • US study found: “declining levels of faculty-student interaction” due to “academics’ incentive to “shirk serious engagement with teaching in order to…pursue research opportunities” • Notes the lack of research into student learning THE 6th July 2018

  8. 3. NEW FOCUS ON TEACHING?

  9. Teaching Excellence Framework, UK

  10. Subject-TEFMetrics and Process The core metrics are used to inform the initial hypothesis of whether a subject/institution is bronze, silver or gold. The supplementary metrics are used alongside the provider’s written submission to determine a final ranking.

  11. Australia next…? • Last month: major new report called for the creation of a TEF • “Teaching needs to be rewarded on par with research, and it just isn’t at the moment” Public money = robust external assessment of quality ‘Reimagining Tertiary Education: from binary system to ecosystem (Parker, Dempster, Warburton).

  12. 4. EDUCATED GUESSWORK “Today’s universities, in addition to educating minds, must instill mindsets, ways of thinking that can be applied across disciplines and industries to unleash a new generation of leaders and innovators equipped to address the pressing issues of our time and the future…” Gregory Crawford – President of Miami University in Ohio, June 28, 2018

  13. MIT • 2005: students not attending classes – but working in groups on projects using material from the university’s online library…the President ‘saw the future’ • Flipped classroom model: groups from different disciplines bring knowledge because “problems are problems. You have to solve them with whatever knowledge you can get”. • And MIT didn’t “know beans about learning”

  14. Bert van der Zwaan, Rector, Utrecht University, January 2017, open access book

  15. Lifelong learning

  16. Industry… Incheon National University in South Korea has “handed control of curriculum design to major employers”. The University’s President said “the university should be honoured to be the servants of industry”

  17. Research Medical Research Council, UK, July 2018: “Multi-million pound grants have been awarded to four UK universities to conduct interdisciplinary research into the biological, social, cultural and economic drivers behind the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in low and middle income countries (LMICs)”

  18. 5. POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS The ‘age of the student’ must be about more than what students want now, based on what they know now, and what ‘satisfies’ them now.

  19. A dynamic, futures-oriented understanding of the age of the student indicates that a university education should be interdisciplinary and equip students for multiple change and lifelong learning across their (long) careers.

  20. Research-intensive universities must ‘walk the talk’. All students at RIUs should be engaged in distinctive research-intensive learning from day one.

  21. Research intensive universities must be leaders in global research on… Higher Education Learning and Teaching

  22. NMC/EDUCAUSE 2018 HORIZON REPORT Meanwhile in the UK… …?

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