Research at Regent's

As a university committed to teaching excellence and reimagining education, our research, scholarship, enterprise and professional practice are naturally focused on supporting our students’ learning.  

Our definition of scholarly work is broad and varied. It’s the creation of new knowledge and practices, research, methods, materials, technologies, and artefacts, that we share with our students and wider audiences.  

At Regent's, we equally support and recognise:  

• Research – discovery of new knowledge  
• Scholarship – innovative application or integration and synthesis of existing knowledge, including professional practice  
• Pedagogical research and scholarship – the study and original development of learning, teaching, and assessment processes and practices 

Our academic scholars are supported and encouraged to move between them or focus in on a specific area – as are our students.  

Our academics continuously review research and scholarship in their subject areas as a way of maintaining their expertise and advancing their subject knowledge, which they then share with their students in the classroom.  

Across the University, we adopt an outcomes-based approach in our research and scholarship activities that benefits not only our academics’ development but that of our students. 

Regent's aims to: 

1. provide an intellectually stimulating and academically sound learning experience for our students that is underpinned by current and relevant scholarship, and that reflects the diversity and internationalism of our students and staff  
2. enrich the culture of learning in the University through the quality and quantity of research, enterprise, and professional practice directly related to the disciplines we offer in our curriculum giving equal recognition of a wide range of activities and outputs  
3. align research, scholarship, enterprise, and practice to the University’s mission and values, and fulfil all expected legal, professional and ethical requirements expected 
4. support staff in identified disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas and specific roles to undertake research, enterprise and/or professional practice  
5. strengthen our research, scholarship and enterprise culture by ensuring we recruit new academic staff that can contribute to these goals  
6. enhance our community by recruiting and supporting research students appropriate for our size and disciplines  
7. maximise the benefit and impact of research, enterprise and professional practice achievements  
8. build research and scholarly capacity in pedagogy. 

To reach these goals we will:  

• enable all substantive academic staff to engage in scholarship as an integral part of their workload by reserving approximately 11-12% of contracted hours specifically for research and scholarship  
• promote research, enterprise and practice that directly relates to the curricula we offer  
• reflect the international and cultural diversity of the University, its disciplines and its stakeholders 
• use high quality scholarship and enterprise to update our curriculum to maintain its currency, relevance and to maximise enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity 
• encourage areas of strength through communities of interest, clusters, special interest groups and other formats, as well as symposia, workshops, seminar series and similar 
• develop our academic staff as researchers through training and mentoring as well as support attendance at appropriately selected external events 
• nurture an intellectual community and culture in support of the curriculum and strategic priorities via Performance Development Reviews (PDR), staff awards, our annual Learning, Teaching, Research & Scholarship Conference, and promotion criteria  
• recognise dissemination of research, scholarship, enterprise and practice in public fora  
• work with partners to support and develop our staff in their capacity to supervise research students 
• offer training, development and good practice opportunities to our research students, both at Regent’s and with our university partners  
• host and promote high quality academic events at the University to share our work externally as well as internally 
• continue to build appropriate links between academic staff and professional services to maximise the efficient administration of research and enterprise activities  
• support staff and students to effectively communicate their successful activities to key stakeholders to maximise impact  
• educate all members of our academic community in their obligations to maintain ethical standards and provide effective mechanisms for ethical review  
• ensure research, scholarship, enterprise and practice directly aligns with reflective pedagogic practice and its dissemination internally and externally as part of the recognition and continuing professional development of teaching staff, using PDR, REAP and the UKPS  
• work towards creating spaces for co-created research and scholarship in our undergraduate and postgraduate curricula  
• bring together students, academics and professional service colleagues from across disciplines to collaborate on research and scholarly projects. 

Regent’s University London is committed to maintaining the highest standards of research integrity.

The University is a signatory to Universities UK (UUK) Concordat to Support Research Integrity. The Concordat enshrines five key principles which the University has embedded in its policy framework and research integrity practices as follows:

1. Upholding the highest standards of rigour and integrity in all aspects of research
2. Ensuring that research is conducted according to appropriate ethical, legal and professional frameworks, obligations and standards
3. Supporting a research environment that is underpinned by a culture of integrity and based on good governance, best practice, and support for the development of researchers
4. Using transparent, timely, robust and fair processes to deal with allegations research misconduct should they arise
5. Working closely together to strengthen the integrity of research and to review progress regularly and openly.

Contacts

If you'd like more information about research integrity at Regent's, please contact our academic leads on research, Professor Jo Lusher and Professor Tom Villis (regentsresearch@regents.ac.uk).

If you have concerns about the integrity of research being conducted at the University, please contact the Head of Governance (governance@regents.ac.uk).