A major review designed to reduce 鈥済ame-playing鈥� in the UK鈥檚 next research excellence framework will only drive universities to find聽alternative ways to play the system, it has been warned.

John聽Gathergood, associate professor in economics at the University of Nottingham, said that the sector should not 鈥減retend鈥� that practices such as the聽recruitment of staff shortly before the REF census date would be ended by the recommendations of Lord Stern鈥檚 review, since聽鈥渦niversities will play different types of games鈥�.

The UK鈥檚 funding councils are consulting until 17 March on plans to accept Lord Stern鈥檚 recommendation聽that聽all research-active staff should be submitted to REF 2021. They are also seeking views on other recommendations, including a proposal to聽give credit for outputs to the institution at which they were 鈥渄emonstrably generated鈥�, potentially taking the heat out of the traditional pre-REF 鈥渢ransfer market鈥� for academics.

Speaking at a Westminster Higher Education Forum event on 7 March, Dr Gathergood said that all Lord Stern鈥檚 recommendations would do is 鈥渃hange the nature of the game鈥�.

探花视频

For example, the recommendation on submitting all research-active staff聽could be gamed because research and teaching contracts are 鈥渘ot fixed鈥� categories, Dr Gathergood said. This would allow universities to selectively submit staff by moving scholars onto a teaching contract if their research output was not strong enough.

This potential for manipulation also applied to the Higher Education Statistics Agency鈥檚 cost centres (the way Hesa defines subject areas, which align closely with REF units of assessment). Universities could 鈥渟trategically change鈥� the Hesa codes of individual staff for the purposes of forming a REF submission, and could 鈥渉ide鈥� staff in niche units for which no submission was made, Dr Gathergood said.

探花视频

鈥�If I was a university, I might start a liberal arts school and put people in a liberal arts school, because these Hesa cost centres are not fixed,鈥� he said.

Elsewhere, a number of speakers said that Lord Stern鈥檚 recommendations for tackling the issue of research portability were problematic.

Katy McKen, head of research information and intelligence at the University of Bath, said that if the recommendation was about 鈥渃losing that transfer market鈥�, the sector should question how much it 鈥渃an actually fix鈥�.

鈥淎cademics are always going to move between institutions [and] it will simply move that transfer window from the end of the REF period to the beginning,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 have grave concerns for what that means for certain groups, particularly early career researchers.

探花视频

鈥淵ou can imagine a situation where there鈥檚 lots of new posts at the start of the REF period 鈥� but what about those [postdoctoral researchers] whose contracts run out in the last 12 months of the period? Are there going to be any jobs for them?鈥�

john.elmes@tesglobal.com