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The Consequences of Assessment of the Quality of Research Outputs

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Geography Education Research in the UK: Retrospect and Prospect

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Geographical Education ((IPGE))

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Abstract

The previous chapter revealed how government concerns about the quality and relevance of educational research have deep roots.

The later sections of this chapter draw significantly upon previously published chapters in ‘MasterClass in Geography Education’ (see Butt 2015).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    RAE was conducted in 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996, 2001, 2008 and, as the REF, in 2014 in the UK.

  2. 2.

    Ratings, which have shifted slightly within the grading system over the years, now range from ‘unclassified’ to ‘internationally excellent’ on a five-point scale.

  3. 3.

    Only around 15% of this money goes to the ‘new’, post 1992, universities in the UK.

  4. 4.

    This is readily seen in the various workload management systems that are now used in universities, where staff have specific allocations of time for researching, teaching and for administration/management activities. Most geography education researchers in UK institutions have seen a reduction in the amount of time afforded for their research in recent years.

  5. 5.

    For Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects these were based on external research income; for the arts, humanities and social sciences these were to be a ‘basket of metrics’ including: research grant and contract income; research volume; Ph.D. completions; quality and output of research; bibliometrics; user impact; peer esteem; research council evaluation; and institutional assessment.

  6. 6.

    Earlier reviews of RAE had been conducted by Dearing in 1997, and Roberts in (2003).

  7. 7.

    The total percentages of articles analysed from the three sampled journals were: 63% from high ranking institutions, 15% from low ranking institutions, and 22% from ‘other’.

  8. 8.

    These were: researchers, teachers, policymakers, administrators, students, employers, general public and international audiences.

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  1. School of Education, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK

    Graham Butt

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  1. Graham Butt
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Correspondence to Graham Butt .

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Butt, G. (2020). The Consequences of Assessment of the Quality of Research Outputs. In: Geography Education Research in the UK: Retrospect and Prospect. International Perspectives on Geographical Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25954-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25954-9_6

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