More metrics would mean costlier REF, review will confirm

Using more quantitative data in the next Research Excellence Framework exercise would mean higher costs than in REF 2014, Simon Kerridge, a member of the independent review on metrics and research assessment panel, has said.

Speaking at the Association of Research Managers and Administrators conference on 3 June, Kerridge, who is director of research services at the University of Kent, said that one of the drivers for increasing the role for metrics in the next REF had been an expected reduction in cost. However, he said that because metrics could only support the peer-review process, and not replace it, it would not reduce costs, and was in fact likely to increase them.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has yet to publish its cost review of REF 2014—a spokeswoman said that an exact date was yet to be set—but in his talk, Kerridge used an estimated figure of £140 million for the total cost of the REF.