Editing Research Assessment Exercise (section)

==Criticism==
The RAE has not been without its critics. In its different iterations, it has divided opinion among researchers, managers and policy makers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Alis|first=Oancea|year=2014|title=Research assessment as governance technology in the United Kingdom: findings from a survey of RAE 2008 impacts.|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8d77fdf0-c716-44f4-8b33-e66e90b84a20|journal=Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft|volume=17|pages=83–110|doi=10.1007/s11618-014-0575-5 }}</ref> Amongst the criticisms is the fact that it explicitly ignores the publications of most full-time researchers in the UK, on the grounds that they are employed on fixed term contracts. According to the RAE 2008 guidelines, most research assistants are "not eligible to be listed as research active staff".<ref>[http://www.rae.ac.uk/Pubs/2005/03/rae0305.doc ''RAE 2008 Guidelines'' Para 79]</ref> Publications by researchers on fixed term contracts are excluded from the Assessment Exercise unless those publications can be credited to a member of staff who is eligible for the RAE.  This applies even if the member of staff being assessed only made a minor contribution to the article.<ref>{{cite news|last=Madden|first=Andrew|title=The researchers the RAE forgot|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2008/dec/19/rae-researchers-ignored|access-date=20 August 2013|newspaper=Guardian|date=19 December 2008}}</ref> The opposite phenomenon is also true, where non-research active staff on permanent contracts, such as lecturers who have been responsible primarily for teaching activities have also found themselves placed under deeper contractual pressure by their employing universities to produce research output.  Another issue is that it is doubtful whether panels of experts have the necessary expertise to evaluate the quality of research outputs, as experts perform much less well as soon as they are outside their particular area of specialisation.<ref>{{cite web|last=Corbyn|first=Zoe|title=RAE's non-specialist gambit could have led to blunders, says study|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/406434.article|work=Times Higher Education|date=7 May 2009 |access-date=20 August 2013}}</ref>

Since 1996 the [[Association of University Teachers|AUT]], now incorporated within the [[University and College Union|UCU]], has maintained a policy of opposition to the Research Assessment Exercise.<ref>{{cite web|title=RAE 2008|url=http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1442|work=University and College Union|access-date=20 August 2013}}</ref> In its view,
{{quote|The RAE has had a disastrous impact on the UK higher education system, leading to the closure of departments with strong research profiles and healthy student recruitment. It has been responsible for job losses, discriminatory practices, widespread demoralisation of staff, the narrowing of research opportunities through the over-concentration of funding and the undermining of the relationship between teaching and research.}}

The official ''Review of Research Assessment,'' the 2003 "Roberts Report" commissioned by the UK funding bodies,<ref>[http://www.rareview.ac.uk/reports/roberts.asp ''Review of research assessment''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070720232304/http://www.rareview.ac.uk/reports/roberts.asp |date=20 July 2007}} – report by [[Gareth Roberts (physicist)|Sir Gareth Roberts]] to the UK funding bodies, May 2003</ref> recommended changes to research assessment, partly in response to such criticisms.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee considered the Roberts report, and took a more optimistic view,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmsctech/586/58602.htm |title=Science and Technology – Eleventh Report |publisher=UK Parliament |date=23 September 2004 |access-date=5 July 2014}}</ref> asserting that, "the RAE had had positive effects: it had stimulated universities into managing their research and had ensured that funds were targeted at areas of research excellence", it concluded that "there had been a marked improvement in universities' research performance". Nevertheless, it argued that "the RAE in its present form had had its day", and proposed a reformed RAE, largely based on Roberts' recommendations.