Creating academic research cultures
Last june I was deputed to India and specifically to the Bangalore Management Academy by the Northern Consortium of United Kingdom (NCUK) — a group of higher education institutions which includes Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds universities — to conduct a pre-Masters programme for graduate students admitted into NCUK member universities. During my one month tenure at BMA, I established a rapport with the academy’s management which offered me a contract to inculcate a research culture within the academy.I accepted the offer with alacrity. I’ve taught more than 1,500 British students research methodology at the Master’s level and have been conducting my own research projects on the effects of drugs upon memory, since the year 2000. How difficult could it possibly be to establish a research culture in BMA?
To get a feel of the institution’s culture, I called a meeting of all the academic staff at BMA to gauge the level of research experience that existed within the academy. To my astonishment, it was nil. Some of the faculty boasted Ph Ds, but of them few had done any research after being awarded their doctorates. Only one faculty member was active in research and he was visiting faculty!
However the BMA faculty’s lack of research experience was more than compensated by enthusiasm, particularly among younger academics aspiring to study for their doctorates. They regarded my intrusion as an opportunity to acquire research training and experience. A carrot and stick approach proved successful — the carrot being that the faculty undertaking research would teach fewer hours and become more employable in the future, particularly in foreign universities where a research profile is a pre-requisite of induction into faculty. On the other hand, the stick was that staff who didn’t engage in research would be given a heavier teaching load.
Guidance was clearly required. Therefore as a first step I suggested that everybody in the faculty should suggest a research topic. Formation of a viable idea is the first and most crucial pre-condition of initiating a research project. The idea can emanate from anywhere — a news report which sparks interest, a discussion with fellow academics, from a television show or a chance observation. However there are two main conditions that are crucial to a viable research project: it must be flexible and it must be of sufficient personal interest to maintain motivation and enthusiasm over a prolonged period.
Next, I informed everybody that research projects could take several forms, each of which has its own benefit. First, there’s joint research in which students and a faculty member (who assumes the role of supervisor and lead author), initiate a research project. This would prove particularly useful for students interested in pursuing research degrees after completing their MBA programme. It is also beneficial to the faculty member as it provides research supervision experience which is now a common requirement for lectureships. If adopted across India, joint student-faculty research initiatives could create a pool of skilled researchers and establish the research culture so badly needed in Indian academia.
Third, I suggested subject specific research in areas of interest to individual faculty members. This would enable them to build upon their existing knowledge bases, update their curriculums and trash lectures written decades ago. Cutting edge research capability would enable them to prepare their students for the real world of work.
Fourthly, there is scope for educational research into student performance, characteristics, learning styles and pedagogies. This particularly lends itself to cross-cultural work to compare, for instance, the effectiveness of active versus passive learning — ‘chalk and talk’ versus interactive classes; and Indian higher education versus tertiary education in the West. Again this genre of research can help to improve teaching and make students more aware of how to study and learn effectively.
Finally, I advanced the idea of commercial research partnerships with external organisations. This could be on a consultancy basis with corporates and other institutions to develop closer links between industry and academia. Commercial research projects can also generate revenue for academic institutions and result in placement opportunities for students.After a slow start, the response has been positive. We now have faculty and students conducting research in subjects such as: ‘Indian retail: Rural infrastructure constraints’; ‘Grocery retail — are small retail stores affected by the advent of big supermarkets?’ ‘Prevalence of the bullwhip effect’; ‘Indian retail: an opportunity, not a threat’ and a joint project with a British university to investigate active versus passive learning.
The first steps have been taken to help students and faculty at BMA improve their research skills by providing training, support, encouragement and supervision. A challenge has also been laid down to other B-schools not just in Bangalore, but across India to follow suit and equip future professionals with the skills to create new knowledge in their chosen fields of endeavour.
(Gary S. Betney is director of research, Bangalore Management Academy)