The relationship between research and teaching in HEIs: recent empirical findings

Purpose: Since 1950s a plurality of studies focused on the relationship between research and teaching in HEIs, with conflicting conclusions. While some studies see these activities as synergically linked, others theorize their decoupling or even negative tension. This divergence is probably because most of the investigations are based on heterogeneous, limited and difficult-to-generalise data. This paper deepens the study of the research-teaching relationship, from the dual perspective of the workload and quality of results achieved by individual academics. Study design: This study relies on various empirical data-e.g., bibliometric indicators, teaching-satisfaction indices, number of courses thought, number of students, etc. for hundreds of academics from Politecnico di Torino (PoliTO), i.e., one of the largest technical universities in Italy. After constructing several indicators concerning research and teaching, their (potential) correlation will be analysed. Findings: This study seems to exclude both the existence of a negative relationship between research and teaching in terms of workload, contradicting the hypothesis that “Those who do more teaching have less time for research and vice versa”, and the existence of a positive relationship in terms of quality of results obtained, contradicting the hypothesis that “Those who obtain high quality results in research are likely to do the same in teaching and vice versa”. Originality/value: The paper analyses a relatively large sample of academics-i.e., 251 from PoliTO and more than 3000 from other Italian universities-and adopts several quantitative bibliometric indicators, some of which are discipline-normalised. Limitations: The study is limited to academics from PoliTO. Assessment of research and teaching workloads could have been more in-depth with additional data, such as information on ongoing research projects, students tutored for internships, theses, dissertations, etc.