Linkages between research, scholarship and teaching in universities in China

Linkages between research, scholarship and teaching in universities in China

• Developing institutional awareness and mission.

• Developing pedagogy and curricula.

• Developing research policies and strategies.

• Developing staff and university structures.

The UK Higher Education Academy has published a compre-
hensive analysis of the links (or ‘nexus’) between research and
teaching (Jenkins and Healy, 2005), from which Figure 1 is
derived. This diagram highlights four different approaches to
how research can underpin teaching and teaching content,
and some of the principles will be presented later in this paper.

The study at Bit

Research questions and method

As a result of the literature review and my own understand-
ing and experience, I decided to address four key research
questions in relation to teaching and research in China:

1. What are the legal, formal and institutional require-
ments?

2. What are the philosophical, traditional and cultural
expectations?

3. What happens in reality?

4. What could be done to enhance the linkages for the
benefit of the students and possibly the communities
that the university serves?

The principal research method used semi-structured inter-
views to enable the subject to be explored in ways that suited
the expertise and knowledge of the staff involved. Such an
approach also allowed flexibility for pertinent issues to be dis-
cussed in more detail as they arose. I also collected some
documentary evidence as the study proceeded. Accordingly,
I devised a three-page ‘Research Framework’ which sum-
marised the project and included a sampling frame and an
‘Ethical and Confidentiality Agreement’, which was also
translated into Chinese. This document was approved by the

Figure 1: Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education

Volume 1 • Number 1 • 77

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