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Prepare for impact, universities told
29 June 2009
Hefce head says get set for REF by gathering evidence of how research pays off, Zoë Corbyn writes
Universities have been urged to start reviewing their research portfolios to assess the social and economic impact of their work in preparation for the forthcoming research excellence framework.
David Sweeney, the head of research, innovation and skills at the Higher Education Funding Council for England, set out further details of how impact will be judged under the research assessment exercise’s replacement.
Speaking at the Westminster Education Forum in London on 25 June, he said: “We want to encourage higher education institutions to review the portfolio of their work and ensure that they are going to be able to put forward a strong story about impact.
“We are interested in impact – a demonstrable, identifiable difference – that occurs during the assessment period.”
Hefce has already indicated that it will look at research impact on a departmental basis, based on a narrative backed by indicators and exemplars.
The first REF will assess impact made between 2008 and 2012, although the research itself may have been carried out earlier.
Mr Sweeney said various “principles” for impact assessment had been agreed with research councils – including consideration of “high-level skills”, “inward investment” and “new businesses”.
He said impact would “without exception” need to be underpinned by excellent “referenced” research. Before a piece of work would be considered, it would have to meet a “quality threshold” for excellence, he added.
The credit for the impact of a particular piece of research would not follow the academic, but would stay in the department where the work had been produced, Mr Sweeney said.
He also spoke about the difficulty of using metrics, which Hefce had originally planned to use in the REF to a greater degree than is now being planned, in assessment.
“We have established that we are not going to measure things… until there is more hard work done on metrics,” he said.
“We have seen some valiant efforts to quantify the impact [of research], all of which have so far failed and will continue to fail for some time, but we are on a learning process.”
Hefce is due to launch a consultation on its final plans later this year.
zoe.corbyn@tsleducation.com
Readers' comments
This is an 'emperor's new clothes' situation. It is pretty evident to everyone when they are not actually speaking manager-babble (which is what whoever runs an organization like Hefce is paid to do) that the whole government policy on the universities - including research - is a pitiable farrago from A to Z. Not on one or two or even a hundred points, but essentially and irretrievably. It is intended to destroy 'the universities are we knew them', that is, to turn these institutions into factories for feeding, in large part, the middle of the labour market. Intrinsic academic values are to be eliminated (they already largely have been) and replaced by - yes - short-term 'impact'. Anything like Hefce is already a parody of itself, whose administrators will continue to earn cosy salaries for their services to economic short-termism (otherwise known as profit). Thought will (as it has done in some earlier historical epochs) probably move outside of the so-called universities, where the impact-managers can stay to run whatever is left - which will have as much to do with real universities as Genoa Cricket Club has to do with cricket (it is now a professional football club).
Agree. Hefce seems to equate mountains of paperwork and "targets" with creativity and inspiration. How deeply said. It will drive many people out of academia, leaving it filled with technocrats who will churn out trained bums for corporate seats.
I'd go along with all the above. Bull-shit rules in the HE world. If course it's all 'on-line' bullshit.
Another waste of time exercise. There's no point reviewing when there is no funding. Besides, all research proposals require some explanation on the benefits of their research - to the society, economy, or whatever. Moreover, anyone can cook up some platitudes. The final say is "show me the money" and "what exactly is it that you are doing." One might as well divert the effort, time, and resources to doing research, thinking about problems, and writing proposals. Finally, doing this exercise amounts to wastage in paper, electricity, and leaving a trail of carbon pollution.
Impact will only be relevant if those whom the reseach is suppsed to benefit are involved in the assessment of the impact. For example, in management an economics, the measurement of impact will only be meaningful if the RAE oanel is dominated by managers and not research academics who clearly have a vested interest in the outcome.