The research-teaching nexus: Student experiences and engagement from the perspective of business school undergraduates at research-intensive universities in China and the UK

Abstract

The study investigates undergraduate experiences of, and engagement with the research-teaching nexus in business schools at research-intensive universities in China and the UK. Specifically, the study asks the following questions:
1. What nexus types are experienced by the undergraduates?
2. How do the undergraduates engage with the experienced research-teaching nexuses?
3. What are the relationships between the nexus types experienced by the undergraduates and the ways of nexus engagement?
A two-phase sequential mixed methods research design following a pragmatic approach was employed. Undergraduate students from two Double First Class universities in China and two Russell Group universities in the UK were recruited. Phase 1 involved focus group interviews, with six focus groups (42 participants) in China and twelve focus groups (38 participants) in the UK. Phase 2 involved a questionnaire-based survey of 570 students (408 from China and 162 from the UK).
Per research question the findings suggest:
1. Business school undergraduates at research-intensive universities in China and the UK can experience elements from all the nexus types within Healey’s (2005) theoretical framework, with different hybrids of the nexus types. An additional nexus type of ‘Extra-curricular Integration’ is also possible.
2. Business school undergraduates in China and the UK can engage with the overall research-teaching nexus in the same way as each other – and in a way that is largely in line with the attributes
proposed by the Student Perception of Research Integration Questionnaire (SPRIQ) by Visser-Wijnveen et al. (2016). The engagement reflects: Awareness of Research, Participation in Research, Quality of Teaching Delivery, Motivation from Research-teaching Integration, and Beliefs of Importance of Research-teaching Integration.
3. How business school undergraduates in China and the UK engage with the types of research-teaching nexuses that they experience can be both similar and different. Common across both countries is the suggestion that engaging with the research-teaching nexus can be more important for increasing students’ awareness of research and participation in research, than for increasing their perceived teaching quality, motivation, and beliefs of the nexus importance. For business school undergraduates in China, the research-teaching nexus experiences can contribute more to their research awareness and participation, and can be more motivating than for their UK contemporaries. By contrast, for business school undergraduates in the UK, engaging with their research-teaching nexus can have a larger impact on beliefs of the importance of integrating research and teaching compared to their Chinese university counterparts.
The findings support the idea that nurturing the research-reaching nexus within and outside the curriculum can foster increased undergraduate awareness of, and participation in research, perceived teaching quality, interests in research and disciplinary areas, and beliefs of the importance of the research-teaching integration. This nurtured nexus does not need to take a common form, and more options available for student experience are advocated. The similarities and differences revealed across China and the UK also help provide references for the HE sector and institutions in these countries (and in others) to evaluate and enhance their research-teaching nexus practice and student experience.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Jingwen Wu: orcid.org/0000-0003-2811-3093

ORCID for James Hall: orcid.org/0000-0001-8002-0922

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