British Philosophical Association

Click here for the 2008 Newsletter.

Hefce, Hewfw and the SFC have just closed a consultation on the ‘Research Excellence Framework’: the successor to the RAE. The British Philosophical Association has responded to this consultation. You can read our response to Hefce here, and the consultation document here. (Hefcw’s and the SFC’s consultation documents are almost the same, and we provided the same responses to them.)

We’ve also sent our response to the British Academy, who have asked subject associations for their views.

The basic gist of Hefce’s proposals is that research quality assessment in the arts and humanities should be based on ‘light touch’ peer review, informed by metrics of some sort. In our response, we take the line that any form of quality assessment that does not involve actually reading published work and judging its intrinsic quality - for example by deploying journal rankings or citation indices, or by relying more heavily on levels of external research income - is likely not only to be unreliable, but also to create perverse incentives that would adversely affect both the quality and diversity of philosophy in the UK.

The AHRC is making some radical changes to the way it funds research and postgraduate study (see our February 2008 Newsletter for a summary). The impact of these changes on Philosophy within the UK threatens to be very damaging indeed; there are not only major cuts to PG studentships and the Research Leave Scheme, but there is a clear indication that a much greater proportion of the AHRC’s money - including 50% of its postgraduate studentships - will be devoted to areas that are ‘research priorities’.

The BPA is extremely concerned about the possible effects of the changes, as are many other national subject associations for arts and humanities disciplines. We are considering how, in collaboration with other subject associations, to respond to the situation, and will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, if you can stomach it, you might want to take a look at the AHRC’s Delivery Plan 2008-11, and Simon Blackburn’s Times Higher Education article (31 January 2008).