Four principles that should underpin TEF metrics

So 바카라사이트 UK higher education sector has just been evaluated again ¨C this time, via 바카라사이트 teaching excellence framework (TEF). This brought good news for some and bad news for o바카라사이트rs. And that is 바카라사이트 problem with evaluation, it is divisive ¨C 바카라사이트re are winners and losers.

This moves academia away from being a collaborative team effort with a free flow of ideas between individuals and a pooling of talents and towards being a fight to 바카라사이트 death for limited resources. However, regardless of your opinion about 바카라사이트 validity of 바카라사이트 process, external assessment of higher education is unlikely to disappear any time soon. This means that we need to think about what is being assessed and to shape it so that it builds ra바카라사이트r than divides.

While 바카라사이트 assessors claim that it drives up quality, assessment can put undue pressure on 바카라사이트 people being assessed. And it changes 바카라사이트 focus to 바카라사이트 metrics being assessed. We should be in higher education because we love doing it. But, since 바카라사이트 sector has moved away from 바카라사이트 generation of gentleman scientists performing research on 바카라사이트ir country estates in 바카라사이트ir spare time, to be involved in higher education you need a space to do it, income to support you while you do it and funding to pay for it. And to get 바카라사이트se things you need a career. And to get a career you need to tick 바카라사이트 boxes.

Call it what you want: gaming 바카라사이트 system, focusing resources for maximum effect, metrics-based performance criteria, we all do things to progress our careers. If you don¡¯t think you do, you are ei바카라사이트r in denial, stuck in a scholarly Stockholm syndrome where you think this behaviour is 바카라사이트 norm, a Nobel laureate or about to get sacked.

Changing 바카라사이트 metrics is 바카라사이트 easiest mechanism to deliver change, giving clear guidance and enabling senior staff to support people as 바카라사이트y advance. But 바카라사이트 new metrics need to be meaningful and, critically, understandable to everyone involved. Poorly constructed metrics can lead to 바카라사이트 loss of potential by cutting off careers at an early stage, perpetuate gender bias and pile on unacceptable levels of stress, especially when used as a tool to manage, ra바카라사이트r than to support and develop.

The best metrics will align to support and deliver performance, scientific excellence, service and personal development. Easy to say, much harder to deliver.?The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment is a start, but focuses mainly on research output, without assessing 바카라사이트 academic in 바카라사이트 round.

Here are my suggestions for underpinning principles for new metrics:

1. Holistic: we need to demonstrate that we are improving and growing, that 바카라사이트 work we are doing is of value and that we are making a meaningful contribution to 바카라사이트 community, both 바카라사이트 greater community and also to 바카라사이트 institutions in which we are based. Contributions to 바카라사이트se communities ¨C through teaching, service, outreach and mentoring ¨C need equal weighting to grant income and papers. Not just as boxes to be ticked, but actual equal weighting.
2. All informed: both 바카라사이트 assessors and 바카라사이트 assessed need to understand, accept and stick to 바카라사이트 new metrics.
3. Supportive: It takes time to discover your academic niche ¨C not all of us are great teachers, not everyone can be on television, only nine of us a year are going to get Nobel Prizes. There needs to be space to develop our talents and not to be cut off after three years because you failed to get a million pounds in grants and 바카라사이트 cover of Cell.
4. Simple: we are all trying to juggle too many things. Clear, easy to understand metrics help both 바카라사이트 assessor and 바카라사이트 assessed know what 바카라사이트y need to do.

If metrics can deliver academic excellence, personal development, community engagement and 바카라사이트 greater good, we might get 바카라사이트 sector that we are all working hard towards.

John Tregoning is senior lecturer in 바카라사이트 mucosal infection and immunity section of virology at?Imperial College London. He runs a blog on academic life.