A Culture of Scholarship: Opportunities and Challenges for the Non-University Higher Education Sector

AbstractThe objective of this article is to explore the nature of scholarship in the context of non-university higher education providers that see themselves as teaching-intensive or teaching-only institutions.While the development of a culture of scholarship within any institution is on first principles desirable, it is the impact of state, and latterly federal, regulation that provides the impetus for change across the sector.In this article we provide a better understanding of the meaning of scholarship in a regulatory sense, the distinction between the scholarship of teaching and learning versus the scholarship of research, and of the teaching-scholarship-research nexus, all of which support appropriate initial and continuing professional development for academics in the non-university higher education sphere. A model that describes the "culture of scholarship" is provided, and approaches are offered for demonstrating unequivocally that providers have not only addressed the question of scholarship but have also effectively implemented their approach and can provide evidence of acceptable outcomes.Keywordsscholarship, research, teaching, non-university higher education providersIntroductionOver the last twenty years, the non-university higher education sector in Australia has experienced substantial change and growth alongside a steady general increase in the number of students in higher education (Ryan, 2012), leading to changing views on the nature and functions of the sector. In this rapidly changing context and climate, new national regulations have been developed to monitor performance across all institutions, both public and private, aimed at establishing a quality foundation for all higher education providers.The Ministerial Council of Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs' (MCEETYA) National Protocols for Australian Higher Education (MCEETYA, 2007), one of the first approaches to a national consensus on the desirable characteristics of higher education, have embedded within them reference to a "culture of scholarship" and a detailed definition of scholarship (p. 19). While there may have been debate about the scope and thrust of the definition of the term "scholarship", the protocols stated clearly what was required to demonstrate a culture of scholarship in the regulatory sense. The National Protocols have now been replaced by the Higher Education Standards Framework [Threshold Standards] 2011, contained in the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act (Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency [TEQSA], 2011).In Chapter 2, Section 1.4 of the Threshold Standards it is stated that: "The higher education provider's academic staff are active in scholarship that inform their teaching and are active in research when engaged in research student supervision." The word "scholarship" is not defined, and it is separated from "research", which only comes into play when an academic is "engaged in research student supervision".Within this new regulatory framework, non-university higher education providers (NUHEPs) that have been considered, and have considered themselves, until now as "teachingonly institutions", are encountering a shift in the way their performance and accountability will be viewed and measured. There is a requirement for them to move from a culture of teaching towards a culture where teaching is overtly informed by scholarship, and is documented.But what precisely is meant by the concept of scholarship? How does it relate to teaching? How can NUHEPs be part of, and contribute to, this shifting culture? Does a culture of scholarship perhaps already exist, but it has not been identified? What can an institution do to encourage its staff to embrace this culture as part of their daily teaching activities? How can an institutional culture be changed from within? Is scholarship activity currently taking place, and, if so, how can it be measured? …