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title: The problem for REF 2029
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The Research Excellence Framework is the UK system for rewarding unhypothecated research funding from the government to universities. It gives a block of funding that can be used in any way that the institution sees fit to advance research. It's particularly useful in disciplines with less project funding to give research time to individual academics.

The problem is, lots of academics hate REF. It looks like an overly bureaucratic system for research allocation and most people wish they could just get on with their research. It's gamed. And, of course, it's a soft-power control system for the policymakers.

The real problem for a future REF is that the erosion of tuition fee value has pushed workloads into "total hell" and most staff are struggling to get any research time out of REF funding, which is just being used to plug the tuition gap. Departments that fared extremely well in REF have nonetheless found themselves the targets of "voluntary" redundancy schemes because of the financial crisis in UK HE.

The basic point is that the finances of UK HE are now so bad that there doesn't even *seem* to be any benefit any more to individual researchers of unhypothecated QR. It's just a deficit plugger but it won't even save departments from the axe and it certainly won't buy them any research time. Senior managers know that their finances will be in serious trouble unless they play the REF game, but individual researchers and departments may (perhaps foolishly) not see the benefit and the point of playing that game. Basically, a future REF is imperiled if it can't co-opt the support of academics on the ground, even if reluctantly. I fear we may be getting passed that point...