- Title
- The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: a case study of the nexuses between teaching, research and service
- Creator
- Muthama, Evelyn, McKenna, Sioux
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2023
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/482899
- Identifier
- vital:78699
- Identifier
- https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2023.2215182
- Description
- Universities attend to multiple demands, making it challenging to identify their particular academic project, which can be defined as how the university understands its key purposes and develops its organisation and activities in service of such. While the three pillars of higher education – teaching, research, and service – are cited as being core to the modern university, it is the nexus between them that provides the particular institutional identity and purpose. While nexuses exist in every university, the form such nexuses take varies considerably across university types, geographical contexts, student bodies, and programmes. We investigate the nature of the nexuses in one South African university through an analysis of observations, interviews, documents, and a survey. The study suggests that several mechanisms strengthen the nexuses of this university, including geographical positioning, institutional history and an explicitly articulated set of values. It cautions however that the nexuses can be constrained by other mechanisms at play. We argue that there is need for reflecting on and strengthening nexuses within universities in the interests of clarifying the specific academic project. Without this, universities can be swayed in any direction and can lose sight of the identity they would like to claim for themselves.
- Format
- 15 pages, pdf
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Higher Education Research and Development, Muthama, E. and McKenna, S. (2023) ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: a case study of the nexuses between teaching, research and service’, Higher Education Research and Development, 43(1), pp. 211–226. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2023.2215182, Higher Education Research and Development volume 43 number 1 211 226 2023
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)
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Collections
McKenna, Sioux (Prof)
RU Department of Education
SDG 04. Quality Education
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details | SOURCE1 | The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.pdf | 652 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details |