The latest proposals concerning two year degrees demonstrate once again that it is matter of urgent importance for universities and academics to articulate more clearly how research not only informs but is crucial to teaching.
thetimes.co.uk/article/birkbe…
thetimes.co.uk/article/birkbe…
The line "In the summer holidays academics write their books. They do not want to spend their summer vacations teaching undergraduates" is with respect unhelpful, as it presents teaching and research as opposed and suggests academics resent teaching.
In the periods outside of term time, academics still engage in teaching activity, preparing and updating materials - the law of tort, for example, has been changed dramatically by seven decisions of the Supreme Court in 2018 alone
There are also greater efforts than even a decade ago in terms of feedback on both summer and supplementary exams outside of termtime.
But the broader point relates to research and scholarship. "My research informs my teaching and my teaching informs my research" is not just a slogan for a job application - I regard as it as meaningful.
My co-author and I, for example, could not have produced the new editions of Modern Equity if we were not researching in the subject - it requires immersion in the field and an understanding of the debates and controversies.
And it should matter for students to see that the academics teaching them are participating in the very law that they are studying, whether Lords Committee hearings on Brexit, responses to Law Commission proposals or citation by the courts in key cases
As active researchers, we are participants in the action students are studying, rather than merely reporting on it, or critiquing it from the sidelines. That gives an urgent dynamism to students' education that can be, should be, and is transformative.
And I find that teaching helps me to sharpen some of my thinking and arguments - in a piece on Restitution to come out next year, I shall be thanking our final year Unjust Enrichment class as our discussion clarified an important point in the piece.
And to do research requires time, alongside all the other commitments (and of course, the other commitments are not just those at work, but family and other caring responsibility). But saying that academics need "time" is not whingeing or special pleading.
It is rather about saying that there need to be spaces in the year where aspects of the role are more or less intensive, to enable the sort of reflections on one's scholarship, that enrich both research and teaching.
What, then, is to be done? Well, at the basic level, I think that we each/all need to make the case to our own students, by articulating how our teaching and our curriculum are animated by research. As research is embedded (obvious to academics), it risks being latent.
We should pull back the curtain to reveal the frantic efforts that go into making the magic happen...
And lastly, I suspect that we can all be better at making the case for research-informed education at all levels, from core modules to PhD supervision - it is not just optional modules in our specialist subjects that depend upon our research.
(Oh and a caveat that my examples here refer to Law as it is my discipline, but there will of course be many examples in other subjects)
