Understanding the inner workings of the research-teaching nexus in Taiwan higher education

2018 IJRSM – Volume 7 Issue 2

Author/s:

Hu, Yueh-Luen
Department of Education, National Chengchi University, Taiwan (joyhu@nccu.edu.tw)

Ching, Gregory S.*
Graduate Institute of Educational Leadership and Development, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan (gregory_ching@yahoo.com; 094478@mail.fju.edu.tw)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9148-0019

Hung, Chao-Hsiang
Department of Education, National Chengchi University, Taiwan (aka0518@gmail.com)

Abstract:

Competition in higher education has forced universities to push for excellence. This phenomenon of pushing for excellence has caused institutions to focus more on research rather than teaching. With the evolving nature of higher education, what matter most is to strike a balance between research and teaching activities. To answer this question, the current study adapted the Changing Academic Profession (CAP) (Teichler, Arimoto, & Cummings, 2013) survey and collected data from the Career and professional situation, General work situation and activities, Teaching, Research, and Management situations of faculties in Taiwan higher education institutions. Data was collected from 457 faculties from 18 universities. Results show that Taiwan higher education institutions practices gender equality, while having a diverse concepts on international mobility. It is also noted that financial compensations are moderately comparable with other previous CAP surveyed countries. Sadly, results show that Taiwan higher education institution faculties have long working hours with moderate to high perceived stress. Lastly, discriminant analysis shows that individuals with high degree of disciplinary affiliations tend to have research collaborations and have the tendency to publish more than their peers. It is hoped that by better understanding how faculty preferences affects their work situation and performance, policy recommendations can be made in promoting a more balance research and teaching nexus in the academe.

Keywords: research teaching nexus; time budget; institutional policy; higher education; disciplinary affiliation; collaboration; research performance

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsm.2018.2088

*Corresponding Author