Colleagues,

 

Many thanks to everyone who fed into the consultation re the REF. Following the final meeting of the REF Expert Advisory Group yesterday in London, it seems clear that, though Hefce has listened, it has been given a clear political steer from the new Department of BIS that does not tally with the wishes expressed by most of the Group. There is a strong possibility that the proposed structures in the consultation document when it is published in Sept/Oct will propose 5 main panels, broadly cognate with the RCs, and just 30 sub-panels, compared to 67 in 2008. That most certainly means a single modlangs sub-panel. This seems to me to be a fait accompli. It may be worth thinking now about what that means for your institutional research strategies for languages.

 

Best wishes,

Pól.

 

Professor Pól Ó Dochartaigh

Dean, Faculty of Arts

Vice-President, Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland

 

Faculty of Arts

University of Ulster

Coleraine, BT52 1SA

N. Ireland

 

Tel: +44 28 7032 4517

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