The role of teaching and learning in European higher education research

Abstract

This contribution offers a definition of the field of higher education research and its relationship to the field of higher education didactics (i.e. teaching and learning). It then provides an account of the difficult relationship between the two in Germany and their respective institutional basis. However, it is also pointed out that the separation between the two fields is beginning to give way towards more cooperation and integration. This is followed by a look at the relationship between higher education research and higher education didactics in Finland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In all of these countries, the two fields tend to separate each with a different institutional basis and a different organisation. Although the Bologna Process has contributed to a blurring of boundaries, it has also contributed to a higher importance being given to teaching and learning issues while at the same time PISA and related OECD studies have led to an 'empirical turn' in (higher) educational research. In this way, both fields are challenged and receive new inputs at the same time leading to more integrated and more internationally comparative approaches.