Teaching and Research: Marriage made in...........?

Join us for a lively debate on the nexus of Teaching and Research!

A well-known feature of academic life is the competition between teaching and research.

Teaching involves a variety of skills and tasks, including curriculum design, planning and delivering classes, assessment processes, providing feedback, answering queries and mastering learning technologies. Demands for teaching are often driven by students and institutional needs rather than choices by individual academics, and funds from teaching are the predominant or sole source of income for universities.

Research careers are often built on years of painstaking work, usually starting with a PhD (a multi-year commitment in itself) followed by more years of working on difficult problems, often in small focused teams, in order to come up with detailed solutions that are carefully scrutinised on a global scale. Researchers usually have a significant amount of autonomy over their research interests, especially as they gain more experience and hard-won expertise, which form the basis for institutional reputations, particularly in terms of 'top 100' rankings.

Both areas require significant amounts of energy, time and application. The tension between these competing demands on academics is not new, but has escalated recently with the increasing scrutiny on universities, including various measures of teaching and research quality.

  • Should academics be universally expected to excel in both areas?
  • Is it appropriate for excellent researchers to be given little or no teaching?
  • Is it appropriate for excellent teachers to output little or no research?
  • Is excellence in one area alone sufficient for maximum promotion?

The questions are many. The opinions are varied. The panel is prepared!
All that is needed now is your participation!

The format of this event moves away from the traditional presentation followed by Q&A. This interactive event invites you, the audience, to engage with our speakers and ask them challenging and provocative questions, which will be debated by our speakers one on one. after their very brief talks.

Facilitated by

Professor James Harland, Director, STEMM Digital Innovation Centre, RMIT University who will set the scene for our audience and introduce and guide our theme with our exciting speaker and panelists.

Our Speaker

Distinguished Professor Magdalena Plebanski, Director, Biomedical and Health Innovation ECP, RMIT University.

Our Panelists

Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos, Associate Provost, Research Partnerships, Victoria University.

Professor Aleks Subic, DVC, STEM College and Vice President Digital Innovation, RMIT University.

Professor Mark Sanderson, Dean, Research & Innovation for Engineering and Computing Technologies, STEM College, RMIT University.

A/Professor Gillian Vesty, School of Accounting, Information Systems & Supply Chain, College of Business & Law, RMIT University.

Book Prizes

We are excited to announce we will be giving away two books authored by Marcia Devlin, Beating the Odds. A practical guide to navigating sexism in Australian universities at this event. To be in the chance to win one of Marcia's books, you will need to pen a question prior to the event or at the event. Here are the two categories you can choose from:

  1. Most provocative/challenging pre-question. To participate in this question, email your question to michelle.nicolo@rmit.edu.au by no later than 5.00pm, Monday 15 November 2021.
  2. Most provocative/challenging question by the audience during the event.

A third prize (book) will be awarded to the Best Presenter/Panelist.

We hope to see you at this exciting and engaging debate!

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.