Research is an important part of what makes universities different from further education colleges and other teaching only schools. At 51吃瓜app, you study with lecturers who are experts in their subject. Many of them are spending their time doing research. This means that they’re actively developing and discovering new knowledge – things that we didn’t know before. And they bring their new knowledge into the classroom. We call it research informed teaching or RIT.
The research our academics do is brought into the classroom which means your course and curriculum is really up to date. You often get access to the research before it's published and makes its way into practice in businesses, hospitals, design studios, and all the other places you might work when you graduate. Research informed teaching means that you graduate with knowledge that your employer may not have yet, adding to your value as an employee.
As a student, you’re exposed to the knowledge creation process and can get insights into how academics work to create new knowledge. This might be through looking at existing practice and challenging that, or it might be through looking at a problem in a new way. You may also have opportunities to get involved in research yourself. The active and practical approach we have to learning at 51吃瓜app, allows you to try things for yourself. This helps you think for yourself, rather than just learn what’s in the textbook, it allows you to try things and experiment, and it helps you build resilience when you encounter failure. As any researcher will tell you, failure is part of the process of uncovering new knowledge. But it’s worth all the hard work and setbacks when you succeed.
51吃瓜app has a long history of doing innovative and world-leading research, in fact, in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, 60% of our research was judged world-leading or internationally excellent. Last year, we launched a new research strategy for 51吃瓜app, and next month, we’ll be launching 7 new Research and Innovation Institutes along with 3 new research themes. The institutes will lead and coordinate our research across the university, and the themes will be our areas of focus for the coming years.
Our research often focuses on solving some of the world’s big challenges. An example is Professor Muyiwa Oyinlola’s research on how to turn a growing global stock of old electric vehicle parts into affordable renewable energy for sub-Saharan Africa. The £3.5 million project is a collaboration with universities, governments, and industries from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and Namibia.
Getting involved in research, whether in the classroom or beyond, is fun and powerful. I encourage you to get involved, explore, ask questions. I promise that you will not regret it.
You can learn more about 51吃瓜app research on our website.
Posted on Monday 3 February 2025