Drop discipline-level environment statements from REF, says panel

Expert group of advisers advocates shift to institution-level research environment assessment

Assessment of the research environment in the Research Excellence Framework should take place at the university level instead of at the level of individual disciplines, a Research England-commissioned report has recommended.

Currently, the REF’s “unit-level” model for assessing the research environment requires the submission of lengthy statements for different disciplines—all of which must be reviewed as part of the process. However, an expert panel appointed to test the feasibility of assessing the research environment at the university level has concluded that these statements should be dropped.