UK: Research assessment set to change

The 2008 research assessment exercise in Britain's universities will be the last of its kind. The RAE, whose results determine how much funding a university gets for its research budget, will be replaced by the REF – Research Excellence Framework – to be introduced gradually between 2010 and 2014.

Last December, the government asked the universities funding council to develop a new framework for research assessment and funding that would make greater use of quantitative information, 'metrics', rather than peer review where a panel of experts assesses the work of fellow academics.

Proposals so far suggest that science, technology, engineering and medicine will be assessed mainly by bibliometrics – using counts of journal articles and their citations. A new 'light touch' peer review, informed by metrics, will apply to the arts, humanities, social sciences, and possibly mathematics and statistics.

Professor Eric Thomas, vice chancellor of Bristol University who chairs the research policy committee of Universities UK, welcomed the changes.

He told University World News: "The new system should be able to provide a time leap, it will lower the administrative burden and reflect what is happening currently. The present system is over-burdensome, outdated and outside of the research cycle as funding is based on what was happening years ago."

Thomas said his committee was in favour of using metrics: "We think they will work. We have to make sure they are the right ones."

The accuracy and appropriateness of article citation counts would be a critical factor. They must be acceptable to and inspire confidence among researchers, he said. But bibliometrics were only one of many variables in the assessment – the new framework would also be taking account of the completion of research contracts, PhDs and research income.

Thomas is also the spokesperson on the RAE reforms for the Russell Group, formed in 1994 by 20 research-intensive universities and including Oxbridge, Bristol, LSE and Sheffield. Its members account for 65% of the more than £1.8 billion in universities' research grant and contract income.

The first RAE took place in 1986 when the quality of research was assessed for the first time under a Conservative government that was driven by the notion of market forces. Further exercises were held in 1989, 1992, 1996 and the last, in 2001, was the most rigorous. It scrutinised the work of 50,000 researchers in 2,589 submissions from 173 higher education institutions.

The 2008 RAE will use the same main principles of peer assessment as in previous exercises: some 1,000 academics have already been selected to serve on the expert panels covering 67 units of assessment for subjects ranging from cardiovascular medicine to music.

Universities are invited to submit work from their research staff for scrutiny: the higher the star rating the more cash they receive. A 4* indicates that research is of a world-leading quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour; 1* means that it is nationally significant and unclassified means that it falls below the standard of nationally recognised work.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has just started its consultation on the introduction of the REF with a conference in London. The role of experts versus metrics is likely to be high on the agenda.