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Excellence and the synergy of research and teaching

Could 2004 be the last year in which departments can expect to excel in both research and teaching? Dr Sean Ryan laments the passing of the special relationship between the two disciplines

Thursday January 29, 2004

As the sparkle of this New Year's fireworks died down, university academics began another year of teaching and research. Could 2004 be the last year in which departments can expect to excel in both activities? Is the academic framework about to change so fundamentally that lecturers' roles in future years will be unrecognisable compared to those in 2004?

A glance at recent academic job pages reveals that some institutions are currently seeking to make large numbers of senior appointments. The reason is simple: a new round of research assessment is on the horizon, and universities are looking to build up their major research assets - people. This year there is added impetus, with the spectre of research being supported only in a few, large research centres. University departments with smaller research teams may in future be funded for teaching only.

Few people would argue against the ability of large research organisations to generate major research outputs. However, in this age of electronic collaboration, small groups of dispersed experts likewise undertake significant work. Good research, even great research, is not solely the domain of large concentrations of academics, and the concentration of research funding into large centres will miss an important category of academics.

It is ironic that online resources are increasingly becoming available to support such distributed networks of researchers at just this time.

A policy that restricts research to just a few institutions is not only detrimental to research, it also threatens to impact negatively on teaching. Synergy between research and teaching produces an outcome greater than its parts. It is easy to argue that active engagement with current research enhances high quality teaching of up-to-date material.

For example, an apple today would fall the same as an identical one 300 years ago, but our understanding of gravity now bears little resemblance to Newton's imaginary force at a distance. Even Einstein's explanation, his theory of general relativity, is under scrutiny in the 21st century. When gravity is taught by people in whose research it is important, the differences between the theories gain a life that otherwise would be lacking.

A multitude of other examples could be given of teaching benefiting from research, but is the converse also true? Undoubtedly. How often the view is expressed that "you don't really understand it until you teach it." Certainly developments in my research have been founded in the academic breadth and depth acquired through teaching.

Hope for recognition in parliament of the synergistic relationship between research and teaching was ignited just before the Christmas break, with Brian White's early day motion (EDM 290) recognising the benefits that research brings to students.

It is not coincidental that this motion was put just two weeks after his participation in the Royal Society's MP/Scientist Pairing Scheme to improve communications between parliamentarians and academics. To produce a lasting influence on policy, academics have to continually make clear to parliamentarians the importance of the teaching and the research they do.

Mr White's Parliamentary colleague, Charles Clarke, desires to see the days of poor quality teaching become a thing of the past. I share that desire, but the way to achieve it is not by artificially separating research from teaching, rather it is by building on their mutually supportive relationship.

Sean Ryan is a Senior Lecturer in Physics and Astronomy, and SubDean for Curriculum Development, in the Science Faculty of the Open University

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