Many argue that there is a need for a systematic integration of research into teaching (e.g. Brew, 2006). Such integration is deemed necessary to equip students with crucial competencies for the emerging knowledge society: research competencies and critical thinking. Moreover, the Bologna declaration (1999) has renewed the attention for the teaching-research link Despite empirical research on the correlation between research output and student satisfaction, and research on perceptions of faculty, administrators and students about the necessity and value of a close link, the extent to which research actually gets integrated in teaching and the effects of such an integration remain largely unknown (Hattie & Marsh, 1996; Verburgh, Elen, & Lindblom-Yllänne, 2007). This study wants to contribute to filling this gap. The study pertains to one aspect of research integration into teaching, namely the prevalence of research-related educational goals.

In the absence of relevant established research instruments, a research instrument was developed. Existing classification schemes on different types of research integration, such as the scheme of Healey (2005) were not adopted given possible misinterpretations due to an overlap between categories, a combination of goals and methods within one category and different types of descriptions for the different categories. The new instrument ascertains the prevalence of six research-related educational goals in courses (course units) and programmes in higher education (knowledge and insight into results of research; insight into methodological research foundations; development of practical research skills; development of competence to be a researcher; development of critical attitude towards knowledge and knowledge construction, and development of curiosity towards evolutions in the discipline). Course descriptions (ECTS) are used as a basis to score whether a goal is pursued and whether there is research integration in that course. Currently the interrater reliabilities range between moderate and full agreement (Cohen, 1988).With the instrument 30 Flemish professional and academic bachelor programmes and master programmes are analysed.

The first analyses reveal a large diversity in the prevalence of goals. The goals pertaining to the attainment of knowledge of research results and the development of practical research skills appear to be frequent. The diversity correlates with the type of programme (bachelor versus master) and the orientation of the programme (professional versus academic). In addition there are indications that the place of the course within a programme (first year – last year) and the cluster of courses within a programme is of influence on the prevalence of the research-related educational goals. In addition to actual results, the paper also addresses the question of the validity and the practical use of the instrument. Because the instrument is limited to written documents, the stated curriculum is investigated, which might differ from the enacted curriculum. The approach enables comparisons between courses and programmes. These comparisons provide useful benchmarks for programme developers.