Higher Education Research: Its Relationship to Policy and Practice

This volume investigates the current position of researchers in higher education. It examines the conditions they face, the themes they address, the theories and methods they employ, the way communication with higher education policy and practice shapes their research perspectives and general approach, how their findings are disseminated, and how they are perceived and utilised by practitioners. Lastly, it examines what tasks lie ahead for higher education research. The book begins with a summary of earlier publications on the state of higher education research, highlighting the fact that many gaps in communication between higher education research and the actors in the system stem from the actors disregard of the potential such research. The next three chapters develop the central theme from a comparative perspective: underlining the divide between academically based research and research aligned on policy and practice, and analysing the pressure placed on research by new developments. Then four chapters address recent developments in higher education research, and the links between research and higher education policy and practice within specific regions: Australia, Canada, Japan and Latin America. The final chapter rounds up the various views presented by researchers and practitioners, elaborating on the potential which higher education research has to offer and asking whether the distinction between a dominant macro-social and policy-oriented higher education research in Europe, and the emphasis on the institutions of higher education and academic practice which emerge in the USA, will persist.