Research and Scholarship Policy

PURPOSE

This policy outlines Leaders Institute’s (LI) commitment to ensuring academic staff are effective, relevant, and current in their disciplines and in the field of higher education learning and teaching. It also explains the responsibilities of research students and their supervisors. LI adheres to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) definitions of research and scholarship.

All research undertaken at LI complies with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research.

SCOPE

All academic staff and research students

PRINCIPLES

LI's priorities are informed by the LI Strategic Plan and the LI Research and Scholarship Plan. LI ensures that:

• all LI permanent and sessional academic staff engage in scholarship to maintain currency in their disciplines, as well as higher education learning and teaching in those disciplines;

• relevant internal professional development workshops are provided for all academic staff;

• appropriate resourcing is allocated to research and scholarship;

• academic staff are encouraged to apply for competitive external research grants;

• all research and scholarship activities and impact are systematically collected, collated, and analysed. This data reported to Academic Board annually, including how knowledge has been disseminated outside academic;

• all human research proposals are submitted to Research and Scholarship Committee and requires external approval by an authorised body;

• all research raw data is stored securely by LI for at least five (5) years.

• research adheres to the Code of Conduct Policy and First Nations People’s Education Policy;

• Research and Scholarship Committee carries out its responsibilities as listed in the Academic Board Terms of Reference Policy.

  
  

DEFINITIONS

Research: systematic and rigorous investigation aimed at the discovery of previously unknown phenomena, the development of explanatory theory and its application to new situations or problems, and the construction of original works of significant intellectual merit.

Scholarship: analysis and interpretation of existing knowledge aimed at improving, through publications, teaching or by other means of communication, the depth of human understanding.

Human research: research about people, including surveys, interviews, observations, testing, accessing personal data or collecting human tissue.

Scholarship Engagement

Scholarship engagement of LI permanent and sessional academic staff is directly related to their discipline expertise, including:

• peer reviewed research publications and conference presentations;

• contributing to course developments and reviews;

• synthesising and communicating innovations in discipline knowledge, practice, or teaching (e.g. presentations, podcasts, feature articles);

• contributions to communities of practice (e.g. development of resources, codes, or standards; engagement in academic societies; editorial roles; peer review or moderation);

• undertaking a Higher Degree Research (HDR) course or supervising HDR candidates;

• professional development associated with informing higher education learning and teaching in a relevant discipline, including disciplinary knowledge;

• undertaking advanced specialist practice or scholarly secondments.

Research Supervision

All research students require a supervisor for their capstone or research projects.

The student is expected to:

• abide by the Code of Conduct Policy;

• meet regularly with the supervisor;

• submit material to the supervisor within the agreed timeframes;

• consider carefully and respectfully feedback provided by the supervisor;

• submit the final project by the due date.

If the student wishes to discuss any concerns about progress of supervision in confidence, they may directly contact the Program Director.

The supervisor is expected to:

• Abide by the Code of Conduct Policy;

• meet regularly with the student;

• provide constructive and timely feedback and support to the student in all research requirements;

• notify the Program Director if the student is not meeting expected progress goals;

• encourage the student to present their research at a conference or in a publication;

• mark the completed project in a timely manner.

Criteria for Supervisor

Supervisors must:

• be employed or contracted by LI;

• hold a completed N+1 degree or equivalent professional qualifications;

• be current in required professional development.

Conflict of Interest

In the event of a conflict of interest, the Program Director will intervene to provide a satisfactory solution (such as appointing an alternative supervisor).

Authorship

LI adopts the principles embodied in the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research for the attribution of authorship in research publications. Agreement should be reached between the student and supervisor concerning authorship of publications. Co-authorship is appropriate when the candidate and supervisor have both made a substantial contribution.

Special Research Leave

Subject to budgetary constraints, LI provides opportunities for LI permanent academic staff to undertake Special Research Leave (SRL) for a maximum of six months. Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• have usually been employed by LI continuously for at least seven (7) years on a permanent academic contract;

• have produced high quality research publications within the previous five (5) years;

• the SRL proposal demonstrates tangible benefit to the research and LI;

• the applicant has not been on probation due to unsatisfactory conduct, performance, or misconduct;

• no period of SRL may exceed six (6) months.

Conditions

The SRL researcher shall:

• agree to return to LI after completing SRL and remain in its service for at least one more year;

• not be permitted, while on SRL, to accept remunerative employment outside of LI (excluding external research grants).

PROCEDURES

Funding and Workload Allocations

Subject to budgetary constraints, LI may fund permanent academic staff to maintain membership in relevant academic societies, present papers at academic conferences and/or receive a research workload allocation where appropriate. Applications for research workload allocation are negotiated with the relevant supervisor. Applications for conference funding are submitted for approval to Research and Scholarship Committee as part of the LI annual budget cycle and within the parameters of available funds.

Appointment of Research Supervisors

1. Prior to unit enrolment, the student is to approach a possible LI supervisor based on the research topic and the supervisor's area of expertise.

2. Supervision arrangements for research projects are confirmed by the Program Director, taking workload allocations into consideration.

Ethics Approval

1. All proposed human research must be approved by Research and Scholarship Committee prior to the commencement of the research;

2. Any complaints by participants in the research should be addressed to the Program Director;

3. Complaints by researchers in relation to RSC will abide by the Complaints, Grievances, and Appeals Policy or Staff Grievance Policy;

4. Any alleged academic misconduct in research or in a research publication will be addressed according to the Academic Integrity Policy.

Special Research Leave Application

The applicant should submit the Special Research Leave Proposal Form, including:

• endorsement from the relevant supervisor;

• benefits to the researcher and LI;

• potential high quality publication outlets for research;

• detail delegation of duties while on SRL;

• any additional internal or external funding that will be allocated;

• a signed statement indicating that the applicant is aware of and agree to all conditions of SRL.

Approval

• In line with the budgetary cycle, Research and Scholarship Committee will consider all SRL applications received for the following year;

• If recommended by Research and Scholarship Committee, the application is then tabled at Academic Board and Executive Management Team for approval;

• The awarding of SRL leave is a benefit not an entitlement and is at the discretion of Academic Board and Executive Management Team. No appeal will be considered.

• No substantial variation to the approved SRL without approval by Research and Scholarship Committee, on the recommendation of the relevant supervisor.

• benefits to the rese

Reporting

Within one month of completion of SRL, the researcher shall submit a written SRL Report to Research and Scholarship Committee.