Public engagement should be incorporated into academics’ contracts, according to a new paper that found that a growing teaching-research divide is squeezing out the “third mission” of universities.
“Finding balance in the triple nexus of research, teaching and public engagement” argues that public engagement can act as a “productive site for co-creation, enabling reciprocal flows between research inquiry, teaching practice and societal need”.
It is also beneficial to undergraduate students, the paper argues, who may gain “employability skills” by engaging in modules and research projects which involve the wider public.
However, the paper, based on interviews with STEM academics in Scotland, found that embedding engagement as a “third mission” alongside the traditional functions of a university is “challenging, especially when there is a dearth of support in some institutional settings”.
“Despite rhetorical recognition within institutions and departments that public engagement can positively impact teaching and learning this is still left as a discrete activity or ‘bolt-on’,” one participant said.
