The recent research survey open books open minds has involved talking to both students and lecturers up and down the UK. A range of questions were posed. Please join in the debate by adding your own comments to some of the answers and research findings.

The focus of this research was to find out how students and lecturers value and use textbooks. This research has also revealed some other interesting insights into today’s learning landscape.

Open books open minds has been developed by the Publishers Association (PA), the leading organisation for publishers of books, journals and electronic materials in the UK.                  

Our Academic Division works closely with the higher education world to determine how publishers can best support students, lecturers and academics with the learning and research materials they need.

Our findings use both qualitative and quantitative research data obtained from interviews with lecturers and students to assess the way learning and research materials are viewed and used today. Interviews covered a range of issues including students’ motivations for attending university degree courses, their demands and expectations for learning materials, and the role the lecturer plays in guiding their reading. We spoke to lecturers to understand their perceptions of how the lecturing landscape has changed, their views on how students are accessing and using information and what this has meant for them as individuals.

The research was funded by the PA and was carried out by two market research organisations - HI Europe and Gold Leaf. Material has also been cross referenced and supplemented with findings from a study on the effects of tuition fees on universities by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), funded by the Leverhulme Trust.