Based on her own current research results as well as international good-practice examples on research learning, Helen Walkington will demonstrate how students can be enabled to participate in research. She will address the benefits of promoting student research for both faculty and students and will also discuss ways to link the mentoring of students in research with the curriculum.

Helen Walkington is a professor of higher education at the Department of Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, U.K. She teaches geography and does research on university teaching and university didactics. She also organizes university-wide projects on student research. In 2009 Helen Walkington was named a National Teaching Fellow and in 2012 a Principle Fellow of Higher Education Academy. In addition, she has been a member of the steering group since the founding of the British Conference on Undergraduate Research (BCUR) in 2010. She has authored influential publications on issues of research-oriented teaching and research learning as well as numerous seminars, workshops, and conference papers.

The lecture series will present and discuss current aspects of higher education didactics from different perspectives. The aim is to strengthen and promote exchange on questions pertaining to the quality of teaching as well as the teaching and learning culture at Freie Universität. The lecture series is aimed at faculty and staff working in the area of quality of studying and teaching as well as all other interested parties.