You shall go to the ball!: overcoming inhibitors to promote a higher education research culture at RGU.

Bremner, Pauline; McGregor, Rachel

Abstract

In 2002 Alan Jenkins first referred Higher education research (HER) as the 'Cinderella of academia'. HER was really not recognised or valued by the 'ugly sisters' of the QAA and Research Assessment Exercise. Even after 20 years challenges still exist today with HER with not being considered as 'real' research leading to lower esteem by those undertaking it. There is also a lack of research infrastructure compared with other areas of research disciplines. Researchers are also divided across several organisational units within an institution e.g. academic disciplines, Academic practices and professional services. This was also the experience at Robert Gordon University prior to 2023, when after a new executive who established a new research strategy in 2022 aiming to create a "sustainable, inclusive and interdisciplinary research environment". Although HER were not one of the four Interdisciplinary Research Themes (IRTs), the executive were open to listen to the lived experiences of researchers at RGU. Subsequently, a fifth IRT of pedagogic research was identified. A Pedagogic Research Network has since be established which has over 130 members across the institution, with a core of 'champions' who promote education research across the schools and the university as a whole.

Citation

BREMNER, P. and MCGREGOR, R. 2025. You shall go to the ball!: overcoming inhibitors to promote a higher education research culture at RGU. Presented at the 2025 Advance HE research symposium: enablers and inhibitors of thriving research cultures, 17 June 2025, [virtual event].

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: 2025 Advance HE research symposium: enablers and inhibitors of thriving research cultures
• Start Date: Jun 17, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jun 24, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 26, 2025
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Higher education research; Teaching research; Higher pedagogic research; Pedagogic research network; Robert Gordon University
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2892035