1. Assessment, selectivity and excellence: getting the balance right Sir Howard Newby

2. 1986 and all that………… A reminder of the RAEs origins: –expanding student numbers without commensurate increase in research funding –ensuring that resources followed performance –selectivity Vs concentration –the importance of dual support

3. Driving excellence The key issue is that funding should incentivise research excellence Everything else is a second order issue as to how this is best achieved HEFCEs policy has been robust on the former, whilst having an open mind on the latter

4. Advantages of the RAE Benchmarking of performance Driven research excellence and banished much mediocrity Led to the active management of the research base in HEIs Raised research standards and efficiency Sustained the UKs position in the global research economy

5. Disadvantages of the RAE Encouraged an over-emphasis on research at the expense of other HEI functions Encouraged a restricted range of research outputs Created a ceiling effect for the top rated units Encouraged the perpetuation of disciplinarity

6. The RAE and wider HE policies Selectivity Vs concentration Research, knowledge transfer and learning and teaching inter-related Huge incentives for research Vs virtually none elsewhere What are the incentives for excellence in non research-led HEIs?

7. Metrics alone are not enough Metrics will not remove distortions and game- playing, merely provide different ones The danger is that spurious focus on metrics will perpetuate the absence of clear thinking on wider policy issues A wider range of incentives is needed to ensure an appropriate functional differentiation of the sector in the future

8. Winners and Losers Running a beauty competition on metrics based models is no substitute for policy Babies and bathwater………