As universities congratulate themselves on their ratings in the Research Excellence Framework, there are fears that subjects such as modern languages may end up losing out
It took six years and cost around £60m – yet the recent attempt to sort world-class from mediocre research in UK universities appeared remarkably undiscriminating. At least that seemed the case when results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) were published last month.
University websites wallowed in self-congratulation in the wake of the REF, where experts assessed research in 36 subject areas, looking at quality, the infrastructure that supported it, and its impact on the outside world. By lunchtime on results day, one observer had counted 14 universities tweeting that they were in the top 10.
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