This article is a response to a request to consider the following three questions in relation to the recent history of research into student learning in higher education: What do we know?, What do we need to know?, and What might we do about it? A survey of article titles reporting on research into student learning was carried out in three key…

Caring about others is a virtuous act but is it compatible, or indeed advisable, in academic research? This article considers the locus of ethical responsibility for work-based practitioners, and considers ethics for researchers undertaking research within their own organisations. The authors argue that, as practitioner researchers, they are…

The results of the Research Assessment Exercises of 1992, 1996 and 2001 were reviewed with a view to investigating differences in the distributions of ratings awarded between years and between Units of Assessment (i.e. subject areas). The results show that mean ratings have improved markedly over time, particularly between 1996 and 2001, but that…

Contract researchers constitute a marginal occupational group within the UK higher education system, and they manifest a high degree of turnover, in terms of leaving employment and returning to it. This article, which is based on qualitative interviews, examines some of the informal work which social science contract researchers engage in as they…