Education and Research – A Winning Interaction?

UKÄ Conference on Higher Education and Research, Stockholm, 23-24 November 2015

Structure

1. Introduction

2. Reasons for the Erosion of the Teaching-Research Nexus

3. Reasons to Stop This Erosion

4. How to Do It?

5. Conclusions

1. Introduction

• Medieval universities were teaching institutions• Unity of teaching and research established by W. v.

Humboldt (beginning 19th century)• The Humboldtian idea is no longer widely shared. Do we

need a new idea of the university for the 21st century?

2. Reason for the Erosion of the Teaching-Research Nexus

• Mass higher education and institutional differentiation• Funding• Rankings and competition

3. Reason to Stop this Erosion

• Preparation of a highly qualified workforce for the knowledge society and economy.

• Graduates in higher level positions or the professions need more complex levels of knowledge, evidence, information and experience to do their job well.

• Universities have an education and training function for junior academic staff who should be offered training opportunities in academic teaching and receive support to carry out research.

4. How to Do It?

Four proposals:• Reward good teaching and provide incentives• Good researchers need to identify talented students who

can be recruited as junior assistants• Experiment with flexible teaching loads• Create an institutional culture that values teaching

5. Conclusions

• Importance of universities in and for the knowledge society and economy

• But currently no unifying idea of the university any more• Most prominent concepts: the „multi-versity“, the

„entrepreneurial university“, the „network university“• Need for a general debate about an appropriate and

unifying concept of the university for the 21st century• Need for normative forms of trust• Working towards the common public good

Thank you for your attention.