The following list of 20 institutional strategies is adapted from Jenkins and Healey (2005). It identifies five broad policy areas that may have a role to play in enhancing the TRN, namely: institutional mission; curriculum and pedagogy; research policies and strategies; staff capacity building; and institutional structures and quality assurance processes.

1. Develop institutional awareness and institutional mission

Strategy 1: State linking teaching and research as central to the institutional mission and formulate strategies and plans to support the nexus.
Strategy 2: Make it the mission and deliver it.
Strategy 3: Organise events, research studies and publications to raise institutional awareness.
e.g.    Institution-wide workshops, Faculty-based targeted seminars, a research project to gather and document examples of good TRN practice across disciplines in your university.
Strategy 4: Develop institutional conceptions and strategies to effect teaching-research links.
Strategy 5: Explain and involve students in institutional conception of teaching-research relations.

2. Develop pedagogy and curricula to support the TRN

Strategy 6: Develop and audit teaching policies and practices and implement strategies to strengthen the teaching-research nexus.
Strategy 7: Use strategic and operational planning and institutional reviews to strengthen the nexus – ensure that course/program approval and review monitor the TRN and its impact on the student experience and outcomes.
Strategy 8: Develop curriculum requirements at course/unit and program/degree level to ensure clearly articulated statements on strategies for embedding the TRN across year levels.
Strategy 9: Review the timetable to allow flexibility, such as for undergraduate research activities.
Strategy 10: Develop custom-designed programs and structures that feature the TRN, e.g. capstone courses that allow students to conduct a research project that brings all aspects of their learning together.

3. Develop research policies and strategies to support the TRN

Strategy 11: Develop and audit research policies and implement strategies to strengthen the teaching-research nexus.
Strategy 12: Ensure links between research centres and the curriculum and between student learning and staff scholarship.
e.g.    Develop effective synergies between research centres , course planning teams and postgraduate and undergraduate teaching                
Strategy 13: Consider the impact on teaching and learning of internal research programs and require that this be an integral part of research proposals.

4. Develop staff capacity to engage with the TRN

Strategy 14: Ensure the TRN is central to policies on inducting and developing new staff and for strategies to support the professional development of established staff.
Strategy 15: Ensure teaching-research links are central to policies on staff recruitment, promotion and reward.
Strategy 16: Provide professional development support for leaders of learning who implement policy at department and disciplinary level.
Strategy 17: Develop academic staff competence in documenting and explaining the rationale and applications of teaching-research links in course and program design, including expectations for, and impact on, student learning experience and outcomes

5. Develop, monitor and evaluate university structures and quality assurance processes to support the TRN

Strategy 18: Ensure effective synergies between units, committees and structures for teaching and research.
e.g.    Have overlap among members of Learning and Teaching Committees and Research Committees
Strategy 19: Examine key university strategies and policy documents to ensure that the TRN is visible in all of these, as appropriate.
Strategy 20: Develop robust quality assurance and enhancement mechanisms and performance indicators at institution and department level to determine the impact of the TRN on a range of factors, including student learning and outcomes.
e.g.    Click here for examples of performance indicators.

Self-Review Framework to Guide Institutional TRN Policy and Practice
We have developed a self-review instrument for academics, institutional leaders and policy-makers with an interest in fostering informed discussion, decision-making, policy and practice in relation to the TRN in their university.

Its purpose is to:

• raise awareness of the various dimensions of the teaching-research nexus (TRN) among key university staff groups.
• propose an initial framework for development of TRN initiatives within institutions.

We envisage that you will select the focus areas and questions appropriate for your intended purpose and audience. When addressing these questions we encourage you to focus on the role of discipline-based research. However, where appropriate you may also wish to consider the important role of the scholarship of learning and teaching and pedagogical research.

Click here to download the self-review framework for policy makers.