What are the particular features of student education in research-rich universities, and how is excellence in education conceived and practised? The paper makes an analysis of these questions, starting with what results from relevant academic literature.

Examples of good practice from across the LERU universities are presented, illustrating ways in which students benefit by learning from researchers who are working at the cutting-edge of knowledge.

Internal and external barriers to the provision of excellent education are also explored, including university structures and processes and a lack of stability of funding and policy. Despite these barriers, research-intensive universities are working to enhance their educational provision, for instance by re-framing curricula and student assessments to make them more research-rich, but also by developing academics as educators and as inspirational leaders in the domain of student education and rewarding them for it.

The LERU universities support a number of principles that aim at intensiving the relationship between education and research within their universities, and at stimulating and rewarding excellence in teaching and learning. The papers concludes with a set of recommendations for universities but also for policy makers, both national and international, on how they can promote and enhance the excellence of education in research universities.