Overview

Research centres are ubiquitous in universities, but when we delve into what they are, what they do, and what they stand for, there is much inconsistency and variety. Arguably, higher education researchers and institutional leaders should pay more attention to these engines that lie at the heart of research. This event launches the project report from the project ‘The Heart of Research: the Aims, Nature and Values of Education Research Centres’, which was hosted by the Doctoral Education and Academia Research Centre (DEAR) at the University of Warwick in 2024. The launch event covers the rationale, aims, findings and recommendations of the project.

The project explored education-related research centres in the UK which have an explicit social justice orientation, and deployed a dual research design of a website review of centre webpages and narrative interviews with centre founders. The findings shed light on how research centres are set up, what they do, and of particular importance – how they enact social justice aims and values within the practice of the research centres.

This event is aimed at higher education researchers, education researchers more broadly, research centre leaders and other personnel, institutional actors with research in their remit, sector organisations with a stake in research governance.

Schedule

Speaker bios

Emily F. Henderson is Professor and Director of the Doctoral Education and Academia Research Centre (DEAR), and based in Education Studies (SELCS), University of Warwick. She was Principal Investigator on the ‘Heart of Research’ project.

James Burford is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Doctoral Education and Academia Research Centre (DEAR), and based in Education Studies (SELCS), University of Warwick. He was Co-Investigator on the ‘Heart of Research’ project.

Anna Numa Hopkins is a PhD researcher in the Sociology Department, and a member of the DEAR Centre Collective, University of Warwick. She was Co-Investigator on the ‘Heart of Research’ project.

This event is co-hosted with Doctoral Education and Academia Research Centre (DEAR), University of Warwick.