Calling all lecturers... RAE to be scrapped???

[Ellbell]

It may be just me, being a bit slow on the uptake, but I completely failed to notice \link{http://education.guardian.co.uk/RAE/story/0,,1737082,00.html\this} till now. So what chance of universities agreeing on an alternative before 2008? (None, I know )

Aaargh! So sorry for posting this twice. Have laptop with stupidly sensitive touchpad. All you have to do is move the pointer too energetically

hahahahaha! We're only just gearing up to joining in with the RAE and were planning a dry run in 2008. I wonder if any of my lot have twigged yet we could be wasting a lot of time and energy...

unless, of course, they dream up something worse ....

RAE is crap. It's taken the heart and soul out of some amazing lecturers whose chief love is teaching students. They feel their jobs are threatened, and tbh if they werent it would be a HUGE loss for the students.

There's room for us all in a university environment - those who want to teach and those who love research.

I think it's going to be like stopping a tank in terms of the 2008 exercise- so much time and energy already gone in to it that I would bet it will go ahead regardless. It's not clear to me that replacing it with metrics is going to help in terms of favouring enthusiastic teachers and so on- it will still favour high impact papers and research grant funding but just be less flexible, surely?

Paragraph 3 of the article Ellbell linked to says that the 2008 RAE will be the last. It's only AFTER that that it will be scrapped. This has been widely rumoured for ages, it's not exactly a shock.

They may well dream up something worse - as the article suggests, there are powerful lobbies in the sciences and medicine in favour of a metrics-based system, which would be rubbish for arts, humanities, and many social sciences

Ah we were told this in a lecture last term....

It's been known by everyone, for ages, that this was to be the last- I think what Ellbell was drawing attention to was the point that it is possible that the 2008 exercise will be cancelled. I agree with honeyflower that it's by no means clear that the alternative will be better- we'll be fine under a metrics system, but lots of people won't.

erm ...what exactly is metrics?

Lionhearted... does it mean some sort of 'never mind the quality, feel the weight' sort of exercise???? (Hope so, as I am notoriously verbose! )

Anyway, yes, I was drawing attention to the fact that there is a (very very vague) chance that this one might be stopped before 2008... but I don't think for a minute that it will happen at this stage.

Also... so far every RAE I've been involved in (1996, 2001 and this one) has been meant to be the last one... So I'll believe it when it happens.

Totally agree about the insidiousness of the exercise, btw.

oh, maybe it'll be o.k then ....I can go into verbal overdrive. Never mind the quality.

I think it means that they will score on a system based on impact factors of journals, research income and so on but without any kind of judging panel, so much more automated. Not sure that will be such a big improvement, and much harder to take things like Open Access into account.

Hmmm... sounds very much like a system designed with scientists in mind, tamaman. (I know you are one... but so many systems designed with science-type research in mind just don't really work when applied to the humanities... oh well...)

PS I have obviously missed something...What's with the French names?? Should I have become, er, Ellcloche (???)