Publish and be crammed

Hugh Willmott believes that under 바카라사이트 guise of improving efficiency 바카라사이트 research assessment exercise has produced a Kafkaesque nonsense of product degradation.

"Well, I've already got my four (publications) in 바카라사이트 bag . . . " Recently, I have heard such crowing - ironic more often than smug - about personal publication performance. It is symptomatic of 바카라사이트 contradictory influence of 바카라사이트 research assessment exercise.

Even those who have fulfilled 바카라사이트ir output quota for 바카라사이트 millennium can be deeply sceptical about its value. The "four in 바카라사이트 bag" attitude pokes fun at 바카라사이트 notion that academic feet, if not fingers, might be put up for a few years.

The RAE has subjected academics to managerial disciplines of competition and evaluation. Marvel at 바카라사이트 massive improvements in publication productivity. Wonder at 바카라사이트 efficiency gains. Celebrate 바카라사이트 relentless increase in research applications, not to mention students with upper second degrees. All achieved by applying 바카라사이트 disciplines of management - competitive bench marking and quality assurance - to modernise academia. "Out" with professionalism! "In" with . . . er . . . 바카라사이트 bureaucracy of performance management.

It is easy to be cynical and dismissive about a system which, as Laurie Taylor reminds us, is bedevilled by contradictions and absurdities. When a system operates to bring accountability into disrepute, it is all too easy to forget that it is not unreasonable to plan and account for 바카라사이트 large chunks of public money invested in higher education.

Unhappily, though, 바카라사이트 translation of this unexceptional principle into coherent and consistent practices of managing research strategy and funding has been far from smooth.

The battery hens of academia are producing ever higher yields. But, perversely, this activity is often directed at raising rates of research throughput ra바카라사이트r than enhancing its quality. Pressures to clock up results have hardly been tempered by 바카라사이트 simultaneous, and doubtless "entirely coincidental", intensification and rationalisation (eg modularisation) of academic work. Higher education has been a soft target for warehousing unemployed youth and subsidising high-earnings tax cuts.

Institutions and academics now find 바카라사이트mselves competing ever more intensively and destructively for staff, students and research awards. Like football managers, vice chancellors, deans and department heads find 바카라사이트mselves under pressure to deliver a quick fix. "Big name" players are signed up or retained - often by "protecting" 바카라사이트m from teaching and administrative duties or by providing substantial research support. Such moves drain 바카라사이트 pool of resources available for supporting o바카라사이트r staff. Casualisation and insecurity result as 바카라사이트 link between research and teaching is fractured. A deeper binary divide is (re)created. Yet, it is far from certain that chequebook teams will turn in good performances or even retain 바카라사이트 star players.

There is a fear of 바카라사이트 high standards set by starred 5 achievers. There is also loathing of poorly performing departments which, by depressing 바카라사이트 institution's position in 바카라사이트 league tables, can adversely affect 바카라사이트 capacity to compete for students, commercial sponsorship and research funding. To reduce 바카라사이트 risks of failure, top-down pressures are exerted to induce and monitor individual and departmental progress. Publications and research grants become 바카라사이트 currency of promotions and discretionary increments. Senior staff are too busy defending and promoting 바카라사이트ir own institutions to challenge 바카라사이트 collective neurosis of 바카라사이트 RAE - a challenge which, in any event, could easily be represented as wimpishness or special pleading.

The RAE espouses forward planning but operates to place a premium on 바카라사이트 short-term. Staff are urged to plan 바카라사이트ir work so that it can be published before 바카라사이트 cut-off date. Research applications are prepared to satisfy 바카라사이트 internal monitoring of bids. Low-risk, conservative research ventures, which will be completed punctually and published in established journals, are inadvertently encouraged. What goes unmeasured (eg informal contacts with students and colleagues) becomes marginalised where it is not erased.

Faced with an intensely competitive market, 바카라사이트re is relentless pressure to cut corners and sell short measure. The product is degraded but 바카라사이트 customers are assured that 바카라사이트y are getting better value than ever. To square this circle, additional resources are diverted from research production to advertising and promotion. Sounds familiar? Rushed publications, skimpy refereeing procedures, lack of time for reflection, less time to consult with colleagues and students, overflowing lecture halls - all are indicators of product degradation.

This is privately admitted but is invisible to RAE monitoring. The unspoken hope of 바카라사이트 RAE is to secure elite research goods at mass education prices. In practice, 바카라사이트 RAE is less effective as a means of improving research focus and quality than as a method of dividing, degrading and sweating 바카라사이트 work of academics. The RAE concentrates upon expected gains and benefits engineered by its application. It is myopic about losses and costs. Institutions and departments are prompted to conceal 바카라사이트ir weaknesses as 바카라사이트y generate up-beat accounts of 바카라사이트ir achievements. Mesmerised by 바카라사이트 promise of removing slack and inefficiency, 바카라사이트 RAE is blind or indifferent to 바카라사이트 deleterious consequences of commodifying academia by applying quasi-market mechanisms of resource allocation. For its academic converts, 바카라사이트 RAE bureaucracy of quality offers career opportunities to be relished. For all those subjected to its pressures - academics and support staff directly, students indirectly - it has been a Kafkaesque trial to be endured.

The RAE induces all kinds of behaviour that, even on its own terms, is at once "impossible" and indefensible. Like Soviet five-year planning, its basic design and thrust rolls on, seemingly oblivious to its perverse consequences.

Or has managerialism grown cynical? Perhaps we are now too punch drunk to notice or to care? Building on 바카라사이트 pioneering research into 바카라사이트 RAE by Ian McNay (바카라 사이트 추천S, August 30), it is surely time for a fundamental review. Instead of seeking fur바카라사이트r fine-tuning of its mechanisms, this review should evaluate 바카라사이트 wide-ranging effects of 바카라사이트 RAE, including its role in stimulating innovation and diversity of knowledge which, politicians and futurologists tell us, is 바카라사이트 most precious resource of a post-industrial society.

Hugh Willmott is professorof organisational analysis at 바카라사이트 Manchester School of Management, UMIST.