UGC RAE 1999 2018/9/20

Guidance Notes 22 Jan 1999 on UGC Web 2018/9/20

History RAE1 1993 RAE2 1996 RAE3 1999 2018/9/20

Immediate purpose Funding = T + R But R is not everything ! Public accountability Induce improvements 2018/9/20

Principles Assess CC Aggregate individuals Based on output Threshold measurement 2018/9/20

New features 1. Broaden “research” 2. Emphasize not assessing individuals 3. Look for coherence: institution CC individual 2018/9/20

1. Broaden definition Discovery Integration Application Teaching Carnegie Foundation: Scholarship Reconsidered (1990) 2018/9/20

Discovery The scholarship of discovery, at its best, contributes not only to the stock of human knowledge but also to the intellectual climate of an institution. It is a scholarly investigation, closest to what is meant when academics speak of "research", that confronts the unknown and creates new knowledge. 2018/9/20

Discovery (cont’d) Not just the outcomes, but the process, and especially the passion, give meaning to the effort. 2018/9/20

Integration It is a serious, disciplined work that seeks to interpret, draw together and bring new insight to bear on original research. The scholarship is closely related to discovery. Such work is increasingly important as traditional disciplinary categories prove confining, forcing new topologies of knowledge. 2018/9/20

Integration (cont’d) This scholarship also means interpretation, fitting one's own research -- or the research of others -- into larger intellectual patterns. A variety of scholarly trends -- interdisciplinary, interpretive, integrative, are examples of scholarship of integration. 2018/9/20

Application It is a dynamic process of creating new intellectual understandings arising out of theory and practice. The term itself may be misleading if it suggests that knowledge is first "discovered" and then "applied". The process is in fact more dynamic; new intellectual understanding can arise out of vital interaction between theory and practice, and one renews the other. 2018/9/20

Teaching It is a process that transforms and extends knowledge while transmitting an intelligible account of knowledge to the learners. 2018/9/20

Distribution Expect distribution of submissions to be reasonable given nature of subject role and mission (& strategy statement) Scoring will be without regard to distribution 2018/9/20

Research index p = 100% x A / T T = number of academic staff in a cost centre (who meet certain criteria) in fte A = the number among these judged to have reached or surpassed the quality threshold, including fractional counts 2018/9/20

2. De-emphasize individual Will not use “active researcher” (AR) “% of AR”  “research index” Individual results will not be kept released used More a matter of adopting less misleading nomneclature 2018/9/20

3. Look for coherence Institution --- strategy statement CC --- Table 1 Individual submissions --- Table 3 2018/9/20

Number who reach quality threshold 1. Submit 2. Assess 2018/9/20

1. Submit Period of assessment What to submit Definition of output Number of items Co-authors 2018/9/20

Period of assessment 4 years 1 Jan 95 --- 31 Dec 98 2018/9/20

What to submit up to 5 best research output items within the period of assessment, + if considered appropriate, one exceptional research output item outside assessment period. 2018/9/20

Output innovation; AND contribute to scholarship; AND publicly accessible; AND of interest to peers and generalizable. does not matter whether funded by the UGC 2018/9/20

Specifically any publication, patent, artifact, etc., published or made publicly available within the assessment period; or not yet published, but officially accepted in that period other output: e.g. drama, concert performance, video tape, computer software, buildings, creative work that can be evaluated 2018/9/20

Number of items Quality, not quantity May submit fewer than 5 Can meet threshold on the basis of even one In the majority of cases, a clear decision should be able to be made on the basis of 3 2018/9/20

Co-authors Individuals are proxies for the CC Need to form a view on the CC's involvement Not a multiplier; if judged to have made significant intellectual contribution, not pro-rated or discounted 2018/9/20

2. Assess Panels Quality threshold 2018/9/20

Quality threshold Quality of output equates to an attainable level of excellence appropriate to the discipline in Hong Kong, and showing some evidence of international excellence. Then to give special recognition for societal relevance, symbiosis with industry, commerce and government, and/or with local culture and society. 2018/9/20

Comparability Each panel to translate general definition into more precise benchmarks Strive for broad comparability across disciplines 2018/9/20

international excellence international vs local Attainable international excellence international vs local 2018/9/20

Holistic view View submission as a whole, Not score each item individually, not n/5. Evaluate based on best 3 2018/9/20

Quality Judged on own merits Not on venue / category / language 2018/9/20

Results No individually identifiable scores Total score of CC to Head of the institution concerned + sector-wide average and median (if not fewer than three institutions) 2018/9/20

Rectifying misconceptions "UGC requires every individual academic to produce 5 international journal papers" 2018/9/20