21/04/23 Committee on the Future Sustainability of Dutch Higher Education

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Egbert de Weert (CHEPS)

International workshop“Academic Profession in Russia: International and

Comparative Perspectives” Higher School of Economics Moscow, June 17-18-2013

The diversifying The diversifying academic profession: The academic profession: The case of NL on case of NL on institutional profiles, institutional profiles, teaching and research teaching and research and professional careers and professional careers

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Russia – the Netherlands in the golden age (1698)Czar Peter the Great (statue and picture in Zaandam)

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Diversity in the academic profession

Looking at the fault lines between teaching and research at three levels:

Level of institutional types and profiles Programme level Personal level: the divide between men and women

Diversity of institutional types

Binary divide: Research universities versus professional (teaching) institutions: eg. Germany, Finland, Netherlands

More diversified: research institutes outside the universities: France (national research centers); Russia (institutes of Academy of Science)

Highly layered systems, including private HE institutions: USA, Japan, Russia

Governments to decide: which institutions ought to do what define budget allocations

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Distribution of working tasks of faculty

Traditional division teaching (40%), research (40%) and administration (20%)

Now more flexible patterns, no formal standards Also teaching-only and research-only positions In Russia teaching load determined according to formal

standards corresponding to rank and position. On average 8 hours per week research against 29 hours teaching (G. Androushchak & M.Yudkevich 2012).

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Binary systems distinguishing Research Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS)

Vertical degree level: sub-degree programs, bachelor, master, doctoral programs

Academic versus vocational dimensions Distinction between research and teaching focused

institutions

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Profile of research at Universities of Applied Sciences

Practice-based and practitioner research oriented towards utilization and transformation of knowledge and research results into innovation, mainly on the regional level.

It is customer driven and close to the market, responding to requests from enterprises (mainly SME’s) and other social organizations with product and customer-oriented research for the short and medium term.

It should be relevant for the quality of professional education, for curriculum innovation and the professionalization of the teaching faculty.

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Views of UAS faculty in NL

Research contributes to innovation of professional practice

Research reinforces the dialogue with business and the professional field

Research benefits teaching and curricular development

Research at UAS is different in nature from university research

Higher faculty ranks (strongly) agree more (70-90%) than lower faculty ranks (65-77%)

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Relative research time spent by higher and lower ranks and institutional type, (7 countries)

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• Higher university ranks are homogenous

• Lower University ranks high in Norway, Finland, Germany

• UAS sector more varied: Norway and Portugal close to university

• UAS lower ranks spent more time on reseach in Norway; higher ranks more in NL

Pressures to pull teaching and research more apart in research universities

Financial support for research separated from funding of teaching

Separate organisation of teaching and research: concentration of research in research institutes, centers, graduate schools

Bologna process of two phases creates divide between teaching at BA and MA level

Previous research: synergy between teaching and research increases with level of education

Separation of teaching and research tasks possible? desirable?

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Percent of respondents agreeing with the statement: ‘teaching and research are hardly compatible with each other’by teaching time in BA and MA programs (universities)

% Incompatibility increases in the extent to which the teaching proportion in BA programs increases

For Masters it is the reverse: disagreement with the statement relates with a higher teaching time in masters programs.

Per cent of respondents agreeing with the statement: ‘Your research activities reinforce your teaching’by teaching time in BA and MA programs (universities)

% The link between teaching

and research is stronger when the proportion of teaching at masters’ level is larger.

Added value of productive researchers in BA programs is the lowest.

Gap between frontier knowledge and teachable codified knowledge

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Diversity on the personal level: men and women in Dutch higher education

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Gender bias

Functional distinctions between teaching and research. Do women carry a disproportionate share of teaching loads?

Are women more committed to teaching/ do they have a preference for teaching over research?

Those who spend more time on teaching have lower levels of job satisfaction?

However:

CAP data reveal that:

Male and female hardly differ in their preferences for research or teaching

Male and female hardly differ in the proportion of total working hours devoted to teaching and research

Relationship between teaching time and satisfactionby gender and rank

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Conclusions

In binary systems research and teaching institutions less demarcated. More diverse patterns emerge

More flexibility of teaching and research tasks at BA and MA level (new career trajectories on the basis of teaching qualifications

Teaching and research dimension as such does not account for gender differences.

Current national policies on HE:

Emphasis on international rankings/ flagship universities

Priority research areas (Top sectors) /Skolkovo Innovation Center

This should not be detrimental to the UAS given their important contribution in the national research agenda (translating research into practice)