Points-based process to calculate academics’ value
The University of Surrey is to cut 100 jobs and scrap its politics department, partly using the Research Excellence Framework (REF) as a guide.
The institution will trim departments including music and languages, according to a consultation document sent to staff and seen by Research Fortnight. A spokeswoman for Surrey confirmed that a total of 100 jobs would be lost in the overall restructuring.
The document outlines a points-based evaluation system for the assessment of staff. This is partly dependent on the number of 4* and 3* research outputs—denoting internationally excellent and world-leading research in the REF—that staff have published in the last three years.
The document says that, although the politics department will no longer exist, politics will still be taught as a constituent subject in the school of social sciences. Research in the area will also be scaled back: the department’s four professorships will be removed altogether, along with five out of six lecturers and two of the three senior lecturers. The overall number of politics staff would thus be reduced from 14 to six, three of whom are teaching fellows.
“Given the research performance of the group, we do not see a future in research intensity in the five years to REF 2020,” the document says. In Research Fortnight’s Power Ratings based on the REF result, Surrey rose to 36th, up five places from its position after the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. But the document points out that only 10 per cent of the politics department’s outputs were graded 4*, and 16 per cent 3*. However, the department was ranked sixth best in the subject league table in The Guardian’s University Guide 2015, and its BSc and BA courses have a 97 per cent satisfaction rating in the National Student Survey run by Ipsos Mori.
The university describes the department’s research income as weak, but says the staff-to-student ratio of 1:12.7 is the main reason for the redundancies.
A joint statement by Matthew Flinders, the chairman of the Political Studies Association, and vice-chancellor Christopher Snowden, who is leaving for the University of Southampton in October, emphasises that the proposal for the politics department is “a starting point”. An alternative plan “that embraces the need for change with a commitment to research-led teaching” would be welcome, they added. The deadline to apply for voluntary severance, however, is 1 May, a week before the consultation period ends.
Staff at risk of redundancy are invited to apply for positions in the new structure, and a points-based system will be used to calculate whether they should be kept on. In the “Redundancy Selection Matrix”, staff are allocated scores of up to 100, with a minimum of 60 “required for them to be appointable”.
Up to 50 points are awarded for research performance and income. For example, researchers will get 10 points if, in the last three years, they have published three outputs of at least 3* quality, and up to 15 points for outputs of 4* quality. Teaching performance is judged out of 30, and contribution to leadership or administration out of 20.
Michael Moran, a University and College Union regional official, says: “Slashing jobs is no way to improve or enhance a university’s reputation and we have been concerned about knee-jerk reactions to the REF. We are seriously concerned about the implications for staff at Surrey. Members are meeting on 25 March to discuss the situation.”
Politics staff at the School of Oriental and African Studies and Queen Mary, University of London, have written letters in support of their Surrey peers. The SOAS letter calls on groups including the Political Studies Association and Universities UK to “denounce the use of the REF as a managerial tool for justifying problematic ‘restructuring’ schemes”.
The university said it was not available to comment as Research Fortnight went to press.
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This article also appeared in Research Fortnight