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Britse profs vrezen nieuwe financiering
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de redactie
8 januari 2010 | Ruim een derde van de Britse hoogleraren zou hun onderzoek elders in de wereld gaan doen als plannen voor meer outputbekostiging van R&D doorgaan. De helft van de onderzoekers meent, dat zo’n financiering het personeelsbeleid van hun instituut en universiteit zal veranderen
De Britse VSNU, de UCU, vertelt over haar peiling het volgende:’The controversial proposals, announced by Higher Education FundingCouncil for England (HEFCE), would force 25% of future research tobe assessed on ‘economic impacts’. The plans have been condemned bythe academic community as an attack on curiosity-drivenresearch.
“We should be working hard to attract the finest minds to Britain,not implementing new rules that will drive them away,” zegt SallyHunt, de algemeen secretaris van de universiteitenkoepel. “Historyhas taught us that some of the biggest breakthroughs have come fromspeculative research and it is wrong to try and measure projectspurely on their economic potential. We believe the new system wouldstrangle talent and destroy initiative.
Half the professors polled think that their department’s hiring andfiring plans will be influenced by the changes. With the highereducation sector now facing the biggest cuts seen in a generation,the last thing we need is to lose the brightest and the bestthrough a failure to support their work.”
The poll of professors found:
* Over two-thirds (69%) did not support the impact proposals
* Over a third (35%) would consider pursuing their academic careerabroad if the changes were introduced
* One in five (22%) said they knew colleagues planning to leave thecountry if the changes were introduced
* Half (49%) said the proposals would influence the hiring andfiring of staff in their department
* Almost three-quarters (72%) said the changes, if introduced,would lead to changes in policies and practices in theirdepartment
* Almost two-thirds (65%) said they thought the proposals wouldalter the focus and practice of research in their department.
UCU produced a report that looks in greater detail at how some ofour most crucial breakthroughs would not have been discoveredwithout curiosity-driven research. To view that report visit https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/0/s/ucu_notsurvivingtheREF.pdf.
