Chris Bertram of Junius has a brief post on the UK's "research assessment exercise," one of the effects of which, he claims, "has been to devalue teaching at the same time as promoting the publication of research which is headed straight for the landfill." He links to a document containing full details of a proposed revamping, but notes that these details are "not easily and quickly digestible." I wish he would say more...I have certainly heard bitter complaints about the RAE from British academics, but don't understand quite how it works.
ADDENDUM:
Chris Bertram informs me that he did say more a few weeks ago. His explanation is well worth reading, even if, as he notes, what he said a few weeks ago may now be out of date.
The permalink to that post is
http://junius.blogspot.com/2003_05_25_junius_archive.html#200355959
I posted an explanation of how the RAE works a few weeks ago at
http://junius.blogspot.com/2003_04_27_junius_archive.html#200223855
Of course that's out of date now since the documents released today are the blueprint for a new system. I haven't really had time to digest the details of that yet.
Posted by: Chris Bertram at May 29, 2003 03:30 PMOkay, I get it. Because it's in black text, I assumed it was not a permalink. I will edit accordingly. Thanks.
Posted by: Invisible Adjunct at May 29, 2003 03:34 PM