ReseaRch Quality assuRance foR the futuRe a ... - Lund University

Panel 5 – BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE
As far as plans for the future are concerned, we conclude that they are
‘good’ rather than ‘poor’, but that much further work is necessary on
the lines suggested above. The intentions to ‘broaden the theoretical
and methodological research base of the Department’ and to facilitate
a stronger international focus in the research training programme for
doctoral students are to be welcomed, but they need further clarification.
2.7 Future potential and possibilities
‘Much further work is necessary’. We note that the Department is
developing new research foci and that a new leadership group is in place.
This should create the framework for a reinvigoration of research effort,
especially if staffing levels can be restored and if more doctoral students
can be admitted within the framework of a programme of intensive
collaborative research training. In this connection the plans outlined in
the self-evaluation report appear to be in general on the right track. In
particular, we recommend the following:
(1) The University should make clear to the Department what its
expectations of it are.
(2) The Department should be asked to produce a research plan for the
next six years, with clearly stated objectives based on the projected
work of coherent research groups that would encourage co-operation
among departmental members.
(3) Support for more doctoral students, for one or two post-doctoral
positions, and for the renewal of posts should be provided by the
University.
(4) Serious consideration should be given to ways in which the Department
might reconnect with teacher training, perhaps through a
formal co-operative arrangement with providers in Malmö and/or
elsewhere.
(5) ‘Learning Lund’ should either be retained with a higher profile
within the Department or restored to its original place (in ‘Area 10’)
and so made more identifiable as a genuinely inter-faculty research
centre.
150