The teaching-only academic position is a comparatively newly emerging phenomenon in higher education field. It has been studied by scholars in different context mainly including the UK (e.g. Tierney, 2016; Nyamapfene, 2018), Canada (e.g. Vajoczki et al., 2011; Wormald, 2013), and Australia (e.g.Probert and Sachs, 2015; Flavell, et al., 2018) from different perspectives including job security (e.g. Kurbatova and Donova, 2019), academic role and identity (e.g. Macfarlane 2011; Locke 2012; Nyamapfene, 2018), and scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g. Brew and Ginns, 2008; Carter and Brockerhoff-MacDonald, 2011; Mathison, 2015; Flecknoe et al., 2017).

Although this type of academic career path is now more widely applied in the institutions, the definition, attitude, reason and approach of creating such position are very different in terms of national context (Nyamapfene, 2018) and institutional culture (Flavell, et al., 2018). Since it is a relatively recent area of research, it is limited in both theoretical and empirical studies. Moreover, there are very few studies on the influence of the construction of this position on teaching and research nexus in higher education.

Teaching and research nexus has attracted more attention in higher education as it is widely accepted that both are fundamental to university (Coate, Barnett and Williams, 2001; Brew, 2003; Jenkins and Healey, 2005; Crow, 2010). It can be investigated from different level and perspective including undergraduate (e.g. Elsen, et al., 2009) or graduate (e.g. Lindsay, Breen and Jenkins, 2002); management perspective (e.g.Taylor, 2007), academics’ perspective (e.g. Roberson, 2007) or student’s perspective (e.g. Lindsay, Breen and Jenkins, 2002); and the tangible connection, the intangible connection or the global connection (Neumann, 1992). To better understand the teaching and research nexus is certainly beneficial in sustainably developing higher education (Taylor, 2007; Stappenbelt, 2013).

Therefore, this study will focus on the influence of creating and developing the teaching-only career path on teaching and research nexus at the undergraduate level in the public research-intensive university from a global scope including case studies in China, the UK, and Canada to provide both theoretical and empirical evidence. The analytical framework is constructed with the theory and concept of organisational analysis (Ancona et al., 2005) and academic identity (Billot, 2010) to emphasize both institutional and individual perception on such career development and its influence on teaching and research nexus.

The research method includes documentary analysis (university strategy on developing teaching-only position) and interview (teaching-only position academics and teaching and research position academics). The data will be analysed with the thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clarke, 2006).

The findings illustrate that although the position of teaching-only academics is all unlisted in three institutions, the reason and approach are diverse. Moreover, the institutional culture and individual’s attitude towards their role and identity of being a teaching-only academics are differently constructed and perceived, therefore leads to diverse influences on teaching and research nexus from the pedagogical and institutional perspective.

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