Teaching, research and scholarship in different disciplines

Abstract

Teaching and research are the primary functions of academics in all academic disciplines in all Australian universities. Scholarship is expected of all academics whether in the university or college sector. Under a new policy Australian higher education institutions have to develop 'educational profiles' that will describe their strengths in teaching and research. The federal government, and indeed, institutions, are developing and using performance indicators to distribute resources. Some of these, e.g. number of publications, number of research grants, and number of Ph.D. graduates are disadvantaging the Humanities. This paper addresses differences in four disciplines, Chemistry, Engineering, English and Law as they are described by other researchers and emerge from a questionnaire study at an Australian university. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.