Progressing pedagogic research: an institutional case study

The student experience has gained prominence in university decision-making driven by an amplified focus on metrics, league tables and institutional rankings. The advent of exercises like the Teaching Excellence Framework means that increasingly academics are expected to evidence the impact of their teaching activities. Pedagogic research or Scholarship of Teaching and Learning enables this evidence-base to be generated. In order to engage staff with this agenda the case study institution launched an annual competitive call for pedagogic project funding in 2014. Student partnership and dissemination of outcomes were requisite criteria to be supported. A review of the impact in 2019 revealed that a fifth of the academic staff group were actively engaged in undertaking higher education pedagogic research and that dissemination activity in this domain had quadrupled. A Pedagogic Research Community of Practice was then established, and this paper outlines the ambitions, the challenges and the progress made to date.