HERG's research

Participating members: Rachel O'Neill (PI)

The University of Edinburgh is undertaking a large-scale, long-term Curriculum Transformation Programme and we are members of the Curriculum Transformation Programme Support Group.

An influential study by Australian researchers Fraser and Bosanquet in 2006 examined academic staff definitions of curriculum. Yet there is very little literature exploring higher education students’ perspectives on curriculum. We have identified that conducting a small-scale pilot study to investigate student definitions of curriculum would be an extremely helpful and timely contribution to a deeper understanding of curriculum informing the University’s Curriculum Transformation Programme. We asked students about their definitions of curriculum and their role in relation to the curriculum using a short online questionnaire. 

This research was undertaken by:

• Dr Catherine Bovill, IAD
• Dr Ian Glen, Curriculum Transformation Specialist
• One Pusamane, Student Intern Academic Services
• Emma Taylor, Student Intern, IAD

Read the project outputs on PURE

Participating member: Dr Catherine Bovill

Higher education research consistently demonstrates that student-staff relationships matter for a wide variety of positive outcomes for students. However, the influence of student and staff identities are a less-explored area of relationship development. Research in sociology and psychology, mostly conducted outside of higher education contexts, suggests that identity similarities often contribute to meaningful human connections. We gathered data from students and staff using an online questionnaire and our findings include some evidence that shared gender identity was the most frequently mentioned identity considered to support relationship formation. Many students and faculty thought other factors were more important, such as shared interests, an opportunity to talk about identity, and staff behavior and attitudes.

Read the article: Using scenarios to explore the complexity of student-faculty partnership