Does it matter to students if research is carried out in the universities they choose to study at, and if so why?

I’m currently researching the relationship between teaching and research in UK universities, and the impact of that relationship on students. 

I was delighted when Dr Harriet Dunbar-Morris agreed to contribute to this work. Harriet has previously looked at this issue from an academic perspective, but now, as Dean of Learning and Teaching at Portsmouth, she was able to explain how the University approaches the relationship between teaching and research in its strategy and practice, and how it benefits students. I’ve drawn on Harriet’s views in my research.

I used to be Chief Executive of the Office for Students (OfS), the regulator for higher education in England. I left the OfS in early 2022 to join the University of Bristol as a Professor of Practice in Higher Education Policy. I was keen to look into a number of issues that had concerned or interested me during my time at the OfS – and prior to this when I worked at Universities UK – but I hadn’t had time to investigate. The relationship between teaching and research was one of them.

Why this research?

In some ways it might seem an odd issue to research: when I told my former colleagues at the OfS that I wanted to look into this question of the relationship between teaching and research, the response was generally one of surprise. That I should be interested in such an apparently theoretical issue – not exactly urgent in comparison with issues such as the cost-of-living crisis, international student visas, the legacy of the pandemic, mental ill-health, funding pressures, and so on. But teaching and research are, in essence, what universities do.

Even though universities vary considerably in how much research they carry out, with some doing none at all, the two activities of teaching and research are foundational to what universities are. It therefore seems to me to be important to be able to properly understand what the relationship between the two is.

In particular, the question that interests me is: does it matter to students if research is carried out in the universities they choose to study at, and if so why? We know that research reputation can influence student choice, but that may or may not impact on the teaching they receive. If a student is primarily interested in acquiring up-to-date professional qualifications, is a research-informed curriculum really necessary?

Alternatively, if the relationship does make a difference, then what is the nature of that difference, and should the sector’s regulatory and funding architecture acknowledge the relationship more explicitly?

Academic identity

There are also implications for academic staff. For many, academic identity is – or used to be – premised on carrying out both teaching and research. But as student numbers have expanded and research funding further concentrated, the old Humboldtian model of the indivisibility of teaching and research feels a bit like a thing of the past. How do we manage and support teaching-focused contracts, and address any perceived imbalances in prestige and status between teaching and research roles?

There already exists a wealth of authoritative and compelling academic research looking at the relationship between teaching and research, dating back several decades. This research has largely focused on whether or not an intrinsic link between the two exists, and what can be done to promote it. But more recently the topic seems to have fallen out of the spotlight, with Boyer’s Scholarship Reconsidered publication in 1990 referencing the ‘tired old teaching versus research debate’ and academics such as Hattie and Marsh in 1996 conducting a comprehensive meta-analysis and concluding that the correlation between teaching and research was near to zero.

Yet despite this, there remains within the sector a strong sense that the relationship between the two activities is foundational to what universities are about. In practice, many universities – and Portsmouth is one – have crafted their own strategic approach to the relationship. But at sector level, the narrative is less convincing. At the same time, external regulatory and funding developments – not least the creation of UK Research & Innovation and the OfS – have driven the two activities further apart. If therefore there is value in the relationship between teaching and research, then it seems to me that as a sector we need to make a better case of defining it and communicating it.

What is the impact?

My research involves interviewing Vice Chancellors, those leading education and research functions within universities, other senior leaders, and students, from across the UK, asking them for their views on the relationship between teaching and research, how it impacts on their own university, in particular how it impacts on students and their learning outcomes, and also on academic careers.

I’m delighted that the University of Portsmouth have agreed to be part of this research, and as soon as I’ve drawn the evidence together and written it up, I'll look forward to sharing it with colleagues in the sector and at Portsmouth, and discussing these issues further with you. But in the meantime, if you do have views on this subject, please get in contact with me.

Author: Nicola Dandridge is Professor of Higher Education Policy at the University of Bristol. She was previously Chief Executive at the Office for Students (2017-22) and Chief Executive of Universities UK (2007-17).