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Durham voices support for peer-review in research assessment
(6 April 2006)
In a survey by the Times Higher Education Supplement on the future of university research assessment, Durham favours peer-review over a more simple metrics based system.
But the THES reports that almost a third of vice-chancellors would support the scrapping of the current RAE – Research Assessment Exercise – which last ran in 2001 and is due again in 2008. Professor James Stirling, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research told the THES on behalf of Durham: “We do not accept that a metrics-based assessment can be applied blindly to any subject area without a great deal of preparatory work to establish that the quality of such a method matches that of the 2008 RAE. “We see no way of achieving this without including a large element of tried-and-tested peer review. Any new system that has the effect of concentrating resources in a few large institutions in which science, technology and medical research predominate is simply unacceptable.” He adds that there is nothing wrong with a metrics-based method as such, but it needs to be carefully planned to be properly robust and valid for its purpose. The survey follows a Government announcement in the Budget that the 2008 RAE should go ahead, incorporating a shadow metrics exercise alongside the traditional panel-based peer review system as a trial run for a new system. But if a majority of UK universities prefer an earlier move to a simpler method, the Government will consider it. Related material:
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