Spotlights is a short monograph series for authors wishing to make new or defining elements of their work accessible to a wide audience. The series will provide a responsive forum for researchers to share key develop ments in their discipline and reach across disciplinary boundaries. The series also aims to support a diverse range of approaches to undertaking research and writing it. A Connected Curriculum for Higher EducationDilly Fung This book is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Foreword: Energising an InstitutionIt is customary, in a Foreword, to begin by sketching a large context in which the book in question might be comprehended and then perhaps to pick out one or two of its key features and end by affirming the value of the book in front of the reader. On this occasion, I shall reverse this order. Let me start, therefore, by asserting that A Connected Curriculum for Higher Education is both a splendid book and, for all those who care about higher education and universities, a crucially important book.That assertion actually contains a number of suggestions on my part. One is that this book offers important insights separately for higher education and for universities, that is to say both for students and their learning on the one hand and for universities as organisations on the other hand. Every page is packed with insights and practical suggestions for advancing students' learning and their wider experience: that is immediately evident. Furthermore, in the Connected Curriculum idea, there are the makings of a coherent vision and plan of action for institutional transformation.At the centre of the Connected Curriculum idea lies the hope and, indeed, the demonstration that it is possible, within universities, to improve the relationship between teaching and research. In a sense, of course, this thought should never have needed to be uttered. For 200 years, since the modern idea of the university was born at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, it has been taken for granted in many quarters that a distinguishing feature of universities is that they be institutions that not only are spaces of both teaching and research but also that those two functions are intimately intertwined. However, for the past three decades or so, huge forces (national and global) have tended to pull research and teaching apart; and so the matter of their relationship has become a matter of wide concern.It might be tempting to address this matter in a rather limited way, looking at the actual relationships between research and teachingwhich, characteristically, may be expected to vary even within the same F o re wo rD: en er g isi n g a n i ns t i t u t...
and to my former colleagues at the University of Exeter for their inspiration and personal support. Most of all, I'm grateful to my wonderful family-Peter, Ruth, Jos, Paul, Lucy and Michael-for their love, insights and goodhumoured encouragement, and to every one of my former students, over more than three decades. All of you have shown me why it is so important to commit to creating societies in which bridges are more appealing than walls. xi Contents List of figures xii List of tables xiii Cover design: www.ironicitalics.com
Focusing the kaleidoscope: Exploring distributed leadership in an English universityIn the UK and elsewhere, the idea of 'distributing leadership' in universities is becoming more popular. Yet, there is surprisingly little research on this topic. This paper reports on a funded study which explored how one institution had implemented a newly conceived 'distributed' leadership model, specifically to investigate the impact of the model on the academics who had taken on the new leadership positions within the university. The study adopted an exploratory, sequential mixed methods design with in-depth interviews (n=30) being undertaken first, followed by an online survey (n=177). The findings suggest that the challenge of 'distributed leadership' in universities is complex on a number of levels: the plurality of the institutional mission; the diversity of possible leadership/management roles; the challenge of effective communication; and the effects of traditional academic values and identities, which may support but may also be antithetical to the strategic direction of the institution.
Is it possible to create an accessible, yet stimulating, conceptual framework for engaging undergraduate students in research-based programs of study? Can such a framework guide faculty as they deliver their programs and set faculty free to innovate and cross old disciplinary boundaries? Can it stimulate partnerships with students and promote dialogue about "good" education? University College London (UCL), a multidisciplinary, research-intensive university, has adopted a values-based framework designed to engage undergraduates much more closely with research. This article introduces the UCL framework, outlines its philosophical underpinnings, and discusses the ways in which adopting a shared set of principles is not only enhancing students' education within their programs of study but also providing new opportunities for them to engage with researchers, with one another, and with external communities.
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