An Australian Expat Comments on the UK's Research Assessment Exercise. (December 23, 2008)

Following the publication of the evaluation of UK researchers' efforts since 2001 in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 TFW received this comment from one of Australia's academic diaspora who heads a department engaged in research and teaching at one of the red-brick universities established toward the end of the twentieth century. Its current enrolment of about 25,000 includes some 25% post-graduate students.

Regarding the RAE. I have come to realize that genuine research activity is in fact a delicate flower. Too much watering or excessive tampering with it is more counterproductive than not. Research Councils, for example the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, probably started as a genuine attempt to support the generic research efforts of individuals and research groups. What they have ended up being, at best in my opinion, is the watchdog of research funding apartheid. Based on the scoring by RAE 2008, the research funding distribution is of course yet to occur. But the scoring was designed to help elite (not necessarily excellent) establishments achieve a concentration of government funding, i.e. place it in the hands of a few. This may not be a news-worthy statement (it's happened before) yet to the extent and obviousness the set-up is, that is new to me. I did make submissions to one of the groups and the result was as expected. In the situation where, for example as in  engineering, 50% of the final RAE 2008 mark is determined by the amount of funding you received for research in the UK, Albert Einstein would be looking at 2* (out of 4*). Frankly, the way the RAE 2008 was done to me borders on the unbelievable. However, the good news for the UK is that the people involved in genuine research will do it, regardless of the impediments. Our research group is growing, and is a source of a great sense of achievement for me. The results are good and we continue to be published.