Research Impact Education: A Systems Perspective on Two Competing Views of Higher Education

Abstract

(1) Background: This conceptual paper departs from the background of how Higher Education represents a critical component of the continuation of Western civilisation and culture. Specifically, the paper addresses the knowledge gap of what an emphasis on the outcome/impact does to pedagogy at Western universities. (2) Methods: Methodologically the paper subdivides the educational process into four discrete phases as to reflect upon whom and on what premises the pedagogy happens (teaching, research, funding, and curriculum formation). (3) Research findings: The presented argument suggests that universities can focus on educating students for its own sake or as means to an end. The current impact agenda prioritizes achieving specific goals at the expense of exploratory research, leading to a different definition of research success. This could result in only end-goal-focused individuals being successful and the curriculum being changed to align with their impact ambitions, the unintended consequence being that Higher Education stops being a genuine mechanism for education and instead becomes inadvertent indoctrination. (4) Conclusions: Only by having student benefit as the primary focus of pedagogy (process view) can the inter-generational feedback loop be safeguarded, regardless of how noble other sentiments may appear to be for related practical purposes (end-product view).