Important research is being left behind: here’s how a change to the funding system could help

Strike, Peter (2014) Important research is being left behind: here’s how a change to the funding system could help. The Conversation [website] . (Unpublished)

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Abstract

With Christmas not far off, universities will be hoping for some early presents in the form of good results in the UK’s long-awaited assessment of the quality of university research. Although the funding formula upon which university research is based won’t be published until the new year, in many ways universities already know the financial outcomes of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) results – because the status quo is unlikely to shift. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will allocate its research funding depending on quality research rated as four-star or three-star in the REF exercise. Four-star is awarded to research deemed to be “world-leading” and three-star to be “internationally-excellent”. The great majority of the £2bn a year of research funding is likely to continue to go to the top six institutions as identified recently by HEFCE: Cambridge, Imperial, King’s College London, UCL, Manchester and Oxford. Most of what remains will go to the next 20 institutions and the scraps will be divided among the remaining 100 or so. It is unlikely that any of the post-1992 universities that grew out of old polytechnics, or have developed since, will receive more than 10% of their HEFCE-related income (including fees) through funding linked to research rated as four-star or three-star.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	The Conversation [website]
Publisher:	The Conversation Trust (UK) Limited
Departments:	Professional Services > Vice Chancellor's Office
Additional Information:	Online article. Peter Strike was Vice Chancellor of the University of Cumbria, UK, from 2011 to 2016.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	05 Oct 2018 13:16
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 13:30
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4131

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