Abstract: As humorously ponted out by Barnett more than 25 years ago (1997), “Give me the easy life, give me research; let me not be troubled by teaching” (p. 21), teaching in higher education is often a neglected aspect of research and policy and too often a disinvestment on the part of teachers and institutions. Research is often prioritised, as both staff and institutions struggle to survive in an increasingly competitive international higher education space. On the other hand, teaching is complex and multidimensional, as, like in other teaching contexts, higher education teachers need to master a wide set of competences and respond to an increasingly diverse student population.
In this paper, I will address the results of three international studies, under the coordination of UMinho, drawing implications for the pedagogical profile for teaching in higher education. I will look at the competences required, based on 2021 study on teachers' motivation for teaching, carried out in Portugal; on a 2023 systematic review study that analysed 51 international empirical studies carried out between 2009 and 2019; and on an ongoing study, on teachers' perceptions of their competence, carried out in Portugal, Brazil, and Spain.

Reference
Barnett, R. (1997). Higher education: A critical business. The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

Maria Alfredo Moreira is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Education and member of the Research Centre on Education at the University of Minho, Portugal. She has a PhD in Educational Sciences with a focus on Language Education. She has been a visiting Professor in several universities in Europe, Brazil, and in the USA. She served as Vice-Dean of the Institute of Education, as President for the Pedagogical Council, and Director of the Portuguese Journal of Education. Currently she is the Director of the Master in English Language Teaching at Primary School and Coordinator for the Teaching Practice of the Masters in Teaching at the UMinho. She has participated in several national and international projects on higher education, with a focus on multilingual and multicultural education, pedagogy, teachers' motivation, and competences. Her research interests focus on pedagogy at the university, social justice teacher education, instructional supervision, and foreign/ second language education.