We need to talk about KEFing

Research England publishes decisions on the first round of the Knowledge Exchange Framework

Once upon a time, the Knowledge Exchange Framework was but a twinkle in the eye of universities minister Jo Johnson when he found himself in a tricky situation at the last ever Higher Education Funding Council for England conference and had to throw something at the assembled vice-chancellors to avoid answering questions on the “major review” of post-18 funding just announced by the prime minister. These days, Theresa May has gone, Johnson is not even an MP and—as shadow education secretary Angela Rayner put it in the Queen’s speech debate—the flagship of the Augar report is now a ghost ship. But the KEF lives on.

This morning, Research England releases plans for the implementation of the first round of the KEF. We now have details on its design, including the metrics, the narrative statements and how and when we can expect to see the published results.