If teaching-research linkages are deemed to be an important dimension of a university’s mission, then there must be systems in place to support, recognise and reward academic staff activities in this area.

When asked if there were any promotion benefits for academic staff who made a point of connecting teaching and research, one policy-maker was honest enough to say:

Well at the moment, no, there’s not particularly.

Another commented:

I’m not aware of specific rewards…we have teaching and learning awards…none of them specifically identify the teaching research nexus as an essential criterion.

Some of our policy-maker interviewees openly admitted that there was room for improvement in the ways policy supported and rewarded academic staff who made the effort to enhance student learning and outcomes through particular efforts in relation to the TRN.

Two specific areas for improvement identified by the policy-maker interviewees were:

1. Review promotion policies to recognise teaching-research linkages, as illustrated by the following comment
   ‘in the current promotions document, someone has to perform in teaching and research but whether it’s linked or not is never tested’
2. Review teaching award criteria to recognise documented achievements in linking teaching and research.

More broadly, policy-makers may consider taking the TRN into account as they review their institutional quality assurance frameworks and academic staff reward systems to support teaching-research linkages. Some strategies for achieving these goals include:

1. Develop, implement and review a series of indicators and measures for institutional success in terms of embedding the TRN in the student learning experience across programs at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
2. Develop and incorporate quality assurance mechanisms and measures related to the TRN to be incorporated as an integral part of the University’s learning and teaching quality assurance framework.
3. Ensure that award, performance review and promotion policies and processes reward academic staff who provide evidence of embedding high quality, high impact TRN approaches in curriculum design, teaching and assessment. In this case, it is important for the university to determine indicators for measuring quality and impact of TRN approaches. These may comprise some generic indicators and some that are discipline-specific.
4. Review student evaluation of teaching and course instruments to include questions on students’ experiences of the TRN across disciplines and year levels.
5. Encourage regular self-review at individual, department and institution-level in relation to progress on achieving teaching-research linkages.