Teaching and Research: the Idea of a Nexus

摘要

The article explores whether the idea of a nexus between research and teaching is still influential, what meanings are attached to it and within what concepts of higher education. It draws on research into the perceptions of two groups of actors, academics and students, and some recent scholarly analyses of the issues. It argues that the idea of the nexus is still important to academics and a range of students. It is embedded in a world in which academic definitions of knowledge and higher education remain largely dominant. The recent writings examined are attempts to tighten the conceptual connections between teaching and research but to relocate them in arguments centred on the needs of contemporary "knowledge societies" for systematic and reflexive learning and inquiry.