Dear all
Just as we enter the final phase of this RAE, the Government has now announced what will replace it.
As part of the pre-budget report, the Government published on 6th December the outcome of the recent DfES consultation on the Reform of Higher Education Research Assessment and Funding. The Social Policy Association submitted evidence to this review through Steve McKay, following consultation with the membership. You can download the summary of responses from the HEFCE website at:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2006/rae.htm
The Government has confirmed that RAE 2008 will go ahead as planned and that the results of RAE 2008 will inform funding for the five-year period from 2009/10. However, this will be the final RAE in this form.
The new system to be introduced after that for subjects in science, engineering, technology and medicine (SET) will be predominantly metrics-based, and will start almost as soon as the current RAE ends - with a first assessment for SET subjects in 2009. The results of the new SET assessment exercise will be phased in progressively with the results of the metrics-based exercise informing some funding in England from 2010/11 and then completely informing funding for SET subjects from 2014/15.
Social Policy and other social science disciplines will be assessed on a 'light-touch' regime, which will include metrics and some peer review, including 'disciplinary experts but also greater involvement of expert users of research'. Over the next year the appropriate basket of metrics will need to be agreed (through a HEFCE consultation). The first assessment for Social Policy and other social sciences under this new regime will be during 2013/14 and this will inform funding from 2014/15. This means that the current (2008) RAE outcome will inform funding in Social Policy and other social sciences up to 2013/14.
HEFCE has been instructed to devise the new system, through consultation, by this time next year. Though this announcement applies to England, the other UK HE funding bodies will be 'invited to participate in the development of the new process'.
The full statement is at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2006/rae.htm
Best wishes over the festive season!
Saul Becker
Chair, Social Policy Association
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