The Research Mission of Higher Education Institutions Outside the University Sector

The Research Mission of Higher Education Institutions Outside the University Sector

HIGHER EDUCATION DYNAMICS VOLUME 31 Series Editor Peter Maassen, University of Oslo, Norway, and University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Johan Muller, Graduate School of Humanities, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa Editorial Board Alberto Amaral, CIPES and Universidade do Porto, Portugal Akira Arimoto, Hiroshima University, Japan Nico Cloete, CHET, Pretoria, South Africa David Dill, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Jürgen Enders, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands Patricia Gumport, Stanford University, USA Mary Henkel, Brunel University, Uxbridge, United Kingdom Glen Jones, University of Toronto, Canada SCOPE OF THE SERIES Higher Education Dynamics is a bookseries intending to study adaptation processes and their outcomes in higher education at all relevant levels. In addition it wants to examine the way interactions between these levels affect adaptation processes. It aims at applying general social science concepts and theories as well as testing theories in the field of higher education research. It wants to do so in a manner that is of relevance to all those professionally involved in higher education, be it as ministers, policy-makers, politicians, institutional leaders or administrators, higher education researchers, members of the academic staff of universities and colleges, or students. It will include both mature and developing systems of higher education, covering public as well as private institutions. For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6037

Svein Kyvik Benedetto Lepori Editors The Research Mission of Higher Education Institutions Outside the University Sector Striving for Differentiation 123

Editors Dr. Svein Kyvik Norwegian Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU STEP) Wergelandsveien 7 0167 Oslo Norway svein.kyvik@nifustep.no Dr. Benedetto Lepori University of Lugano Faculty of Economics Centre for Organizational Research Via Giuseppe Buffi 13 6904 Lugano Switzerland blepori@unisi.ch ISSN 1571-0378 ISBN 978-1-4020-9243-5 e-isbn 978-1-4020-9244-2 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-9244-2 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010928325 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Preface Even if in most countries, higher education institutions outside the university sector originally did not have a research mandate, it is well known that many of these institutions, which in the English language variably are named universities of applied sciences, university colleges, institutes of technology or polytechnics, have subsequently developed some research activities. In general, governments have begun to recognise the research role of these institutions, to provide them with research funding and to initiate various measures for enhancing research activities. However, despite the importance of this issue, only a handful of papers and reports have been published on the research mission of these institutions, and except for Norway and Switzerland, very few in-depth studies have been undertaken. These studies show that higher education institutions outside the university sector are faced with many challenges in their efforts to develop research as an ordinary activity alongside teaching. Moreover, the enhancement of this activity leads to quite complex interactions with universities, both in the sense of differentiation based on a specific research mandate oriented towards the regional economy and in the improvement of teaching and professional practice, and convergence related to the drift of research towards traditional academic standards. Thus, we believe that there would be substantial interest in Europe for a book that focuses on the research mission of this sector. This book is organised into four parts: The first part is constituted by an introductory chapter (by Svein Kyvik and Benedetto Lepori) which provides a general overview of this sector in a European context and the issues that are discussed in the various chapters. This chapter also presents an analytical framework aimed at improving the understanding of the processes driving the development of research in these institutions. The second part contains four chapters which analyse a number of transversal issues related to the research mission: the regional relevance of research (by Ben Jongbloed), the relevance of research for the improvement of education and professional practice (by Kristin Heggen, Berit Karseth and Svein Kyvik), funding of research (by Benedetto Lepori) and the human resource challenge (by Ellen Hazelkorn and Amanda Moynihan). The third part consists of eight chapters which gives an overview of the state of the art in each of the countries included in this study: Belgium (by Jef Verhoeven), v

vi Preface the Czech Republic (by Petr Pabian), Finland (by Jussi Välimaa and Marja-Liisa Neuvonen-Rauhola), Germany (by Marianne Kulicke and Thomas Stahlecker), Ireland (by Ellen Hazelkorn and Amanda Moynihan), The Netherlands (by Egbert de Weert and Frans Leijnse), Norway (by Svein Kyvik and Ingvild Marheim Larsen) and Switzerland (by Benedetto Lepori). Finally, a concluding chapter (by Benedetto Lepori and Svein Kyvik) summarises the main findings in this book and discusses some challenges and dilemmas related to the further development of research in this sector. The intention of the joint effort of the 16 contributors to this project has been to produce a book that will become a reference work for the further discussion of the role of research in European higher education institutions outside universities. We would like to thank Peter Bentley and Peter Maassen for their valuable comments on a draft version of this book. Oslo, Norway Lugano, Switzerland November, 2009 Svein Kyvik Benedetto Lepori

Contents Part I Introduction 1 Research in Higher Education Institutions Outside the University Sector... 3 Svein Kyvik and Benedetto Lepori Part II Thematic Studies 2 The Regional Relevance of Research in Universities of Applied Sciences... 25 Ben Jongbloed 3 The Relevance of Research for the Improvement of Education and Professional Practice... 45 Kristin Heggen, Berit Karseth, and Svein Kyvik 4 Funding for Which Mission? Changes and Ambiguities in the Funding of Universities of Applied Sciences and Their Research Activities... 61 Benedetto Lepori 5 Transforming Academic Practice: Human Resource Challenges. 77 Ellen Hazelkorn and Amanda Moynihan Part III National Case Studies 6 Research in University Colleges in Belgium... 97 Jef C. Verhoeven 7 Czech Republic: Research Required but Not Supported... 115 Petr Pabian 8 We Are a Training and Development Organisation Research and Development in Finnish Polytechnics... 135 Jussi Välimaa and Marja-Liisa Neuvonen-Rauhala vii

viii Contents 9 The Role of Research in German Universities of Applied Sciences 155 Marianne Kulicke and Thomas Stahlecker 10 Ireland: The Challenges of Building Research in a Binary Higher Education Culture... 175 Ellen Hazelkorn and Amanda Moynihan 11 Practice-Oriented Research: The Extended Function of Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences... 199 Egbert de Weert and Frans Leijnse 12 Norway: Strong State Support of Research in University Colleges 219 Svein Kyvik and Ingvild Marheim Larsen 13 Striving for Differentiation: Ambiguities of the Applied Research Mandate in Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences... 237 Benedetto Lepori Part IV Conclusion 14 Sitting in the Middle: Tensions and Dynamics of Research in UASs... 259 Benedetto Lepori and Svein Kyvik Author Index... 273 Subject Index... 277

Contributors Ellen Hazelkorn Higher Education Policy Research Unit (HEPRU), Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland, Ellen.Hazelkorn@dit.ie Kristin Heggen Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, k.m.heggen@medisin.uio.no Ben Jongbloed Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, b.w.a.jongbloed@utwente.nl Berit Karseth Faculty of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, berit.karseth@ped.uio.no Marianne Kulicke Fraunhofer ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany, Marianne.Kulicke@isi.fraunhofer.de Svein Kyvik Norwegian Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU STEP), Oslo, Norway, svein.kyvik@nifustep.no Ingvild Marheim Larsen Faculty of Social Sciences, Oslo University College, Oslo, Norway, Ingvild.M.Larsen@sam.hio.no Frans Leijnse Hogeschool Utrecht, Open University, Utrecht, The Netherlands, frans.leijnse@hu.nl Benedetto Lepori Faculty of Economics, Centre for Organizational Research, University of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland, blepori@unisi.ch Amanda Moynihan Higher Education Policy Research Unit (HEPRU), Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland, amanda.moynihan@dit.ie Marja-Liisa Neuvonen-Rauhala Innovation Centre, Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Lahti, Finland, Marja-Liisa.Neuvonen-Rauhala@lamk.fi Petr Pabian Department of Social Sciences, University of Pardubice, Pardubice, Czech Republic, petr.pabian@upce.cz Thomas Stahlecker Fraunhofer ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany, Thomas.Stahlecker@isi.fraunhofer.de ix

x Contributors Jussi Välimaa Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland, jussi.p.valimaa@jyu.fi Jef C. Verhoeven Centre for Sociological Research, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, Jef.Verhoeven@Soc.Kuleuven.be Egbert de Weert Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, e.deweert@utwente.nl