عملکرد تحقیقاتی و کیفیت آموزش در سیستم آموزش عالی اسپانیا: شواهد از یک دانشگاه متوسط  Research performance and teaching quality in the Spanish higher education system: Evidence from a medium-sized university

1. Introduction This study analyses the teaching-research nexus in the context ofthe Spanish university system. In most countries there is a shared view that universities should perform both research and teaching activities, which in the aggregate are seen as complements. Reasonable arguments for both positive and negative effects of research on teaching can be found in the literature. The complementary view is usually based on the idea that research may create positive spillovers on teaching by facilitating up-to-date courses and a deeper understanding of the relevant topics. On the contrary, these activities could also be thought of as being substitutes if one considers constraints of time, effort and funding allocation (Marsh and Hattie, 2002). We can therefore hypothesize different relationships between research and teaching rather than a single link, with these relationships depending on contextual factors such as the type and level of research, the academic discipline, or the level and the mode of delivering of teaching (Brew, 1999). The debate on the relationship between teaching and research has a long tradition among academics and brings to the forefront some relevant issues for university authorities and public policy ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail address: jartes@ucm.es (J. Artés). in regards to how these activities relate, the optimal mix between teaching and research and the incentives put in place to improve the quality of both teaching and research conducted by universities. Whether research and teaching are complements or substitutes may motivate increased funding for one or the other activity. If research contributes to improving the quality of teaching, this positive external effect of research would provide an argument for increasing the funding devoted to research activities. In a similar way, the net effect of research on teaching may also motivate the need for professors to integrate these activities or to specialize in one of them, thus having important implications at the organizational level of universities and departments. As noted by Hughes (2004), a positive relationship between research and teaching would motivate locating these activities closely together whereas a non-significant relationship (or a negative one) would support the idea of separating them into research-only and teaching-only institutions.1 Finally, a crucial point to promote quality in both teaching and research refers to the incentive schemes, which could affect the allocation of time and effort to these activities. Although incentives to teaching are often established, most incen- tives schemes are based on research output and this may bias the optimal balance between teaching and research (Sylos Labini and Zinovyeva, 2008). If the emphasis to achieve career progression is mainly placed on the quality of research, many academics could regard teaching duties as a “necessary evil” (Karagiannis, 2009), thus neglecting their teaching activities or allocating less time and effort to them.2 Universities in Spain, as is common around the world, have the double mission of teaching and contributing to knowledge through research.3 These two activities are generally seen as complementary and incentives schemes are setto enhance teaching and researchquality, althoughgreater emphasis for the academic career is placed on research. Most Spanish universities measure teaching quality using teaching evaluations based on students’ perceptions. Although itis generally acknowledged thatthese subjective assessments do not directly measure learning outcomes and could be biased by students’ expectations,4 most universities rely on them to evaluate teaching, as there is no widely accepted alternative that is as easy to use on a regular basis (Alwood et al., 2015; Marsh, 2007). In the case of research performance, incentives are built mainly upon officially recognized research evaluations that are conducted by education authorities following an external review process. Academics in Spain can submit their research for evaluation every six years and a national committee evaluates the five most relevant contributions produced in that six-year period (sexenio) and decides to accord (or not) an official recognition of that research period. A positive evaluation of that research period implies salary increases, providing a research incentive.5