Universities will need to prove their D&I credentials to secure new funding for research. The UK’s higher education funding bodies have announced initial decisions on the high-level design of the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) and, in a marked switch in focus, they’re putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of it. We’ll consider the impact it will have on universities.
REF is a national assessment of UK research held every six to seven years to determine the quality of research produced by higher education institutions. It’s used to allocate about £2 billion in annual research funding that institutions can spend as they wish.
The Telegraph reports on this and quotes Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair at Research England. She says: “This is a once-in-a-generation moment for change as we shift national research assessment away from a focus on individuals to how institutions and disciplines contribute to healthy, dynamic and inclusive research environments.”
In a shift to what has gone before, REF 2028 will have an expanded definition of research excellence. The three elements from the previous REF 2014 and REF 2021 have been renamed, their content adjusted, and their weightings rebalanced. So:
People, culture and environment replaces the environment element and will be expanded to include research culture and gets 25% weighting.
Contribution to knowledge and understanding replaces the outputs element. It will largely be based on assessment of research outputs but will also include evidence of broader contributions to the advancement of the discipline. It gets 50% weighting.
Engagement and impact replaces the impact element. It is similar to the impact element of REF 2014 and will consist of impact case studies and an accompanying statement. It gets 25% weighting.
So, let’s get a view on this. Shuabe Shabudin works in the university sector and earlier he joined me by video-link from Birmingham to discuss it. I asked Shuabe what he made of REF’s switch of focus:
Shuabe Shabudin: “I think it's another example of how we can see that whilst we are all, hopefully, in agreement that this is just the morally right thing to do, it's morally correct for us to have as diverse an organisation as we can do and to take steps to facilitate that, it’s now being made almost business critical. So, I think it's really positive that the REF is saying we are going to be assessing - and in fact, I think it's going to make up 25% of their assessments - so they're saying, look, this is really something we need to get behind and, perhaps, also other public sector organisations will follow. So, in principle, I think it's a really, really positive step that's being taken and will have some long-lasting impacts, I would hope.”
Joe Glavina: “Clearly universities wanting new research funding are going to have to be able to prove their D&I credentials. Is there a risk of some of them adopting a tick-box approach to the assessment criteria?”
Shaube Shabudin: “Yes, quite possibly. I think the risk of a conflict of interest in priorities is quite rife here and, by that, I mean the amounts that we're talking about as could be awarded by the REF are significant. So clearly that is then going to make the factors that the REF are going to consider higher up on the priority list, or higher up on the chain of decisions that need to be taken. So, I think what I'm saying there is universities, all organisations actually, but universities here, just need to be really aware that the decisions that they're making are being made for the right reasons genuinely because it's the right thing to do and, as a result, will have a knock on when they are being assessed by REF rather than the decision being made in order to secure that funding. I think the risk there is, well, they could quite easily be found out. You know, I'm sure that in the assessment that's going to be made by the REF they will be doing that kind of a sense check, that kind of a health check, a look and feel test, if you like, but also legally, from a discrimination point of view, if you have offers of jobs that are being made to people from a minority ethnic background where, maybe, a white member of staff or white job seeker hasn't been appointed, then they may well ask the question and say well, okay, it’s pretty convenient that two weeks after, two months after, a semester after, the appointment of five people from a minority ethnic background you got a significant REF funding award so was that the reason why I was not successful with the job? So just really needing to be aware that decisions that are made are legally sound, particularly in relation to any offers of employment that are made, or any promotions, or anything else of that nature.”
Joe Glavina: “This is just a consultation at this stage but the initial decisions on the assessment criteria have been made. So, what should universities be doing now, if anything?”
Shuabe Shabudin: “So, I think it's really about understanding where you are. So, understanding what the current position is for the university and often that could be done through ethnicity pay gap reporting and a number of our university clients have already been doing that. So there's already the data to show how close the gap might be, what steps might be taken to be reducing the gap, where the pressure points can might be, if I can call it that, or if not, if that data isn't available, then it would be about getting the information, talking to key stakeholders, talking to those that are in positions where they can be making decisions around what to do with diversity and inclusion, or even maybe procurement and recruitment. So, once they have done that analysis, that landscape analysis if I can call it that, they can then, and we would work with them then, as to how we can report that, how we can present that information in the best way possible and to really show what level of diversity that there is. It’s difficult to say. It’s not as if there's a percentage scale of a level of diversity, so it's really about indicators, about examples of what makes the university a diverse place to be working.”
Joe Glavina: “So, if the message to universities is understand where you are now in D&I terms, I guess that means conducting a review of some sort and so, going forward, that’s something Brook Graham could help with?”
Shuabe Shabudin: “So actually, Joe, it's something that we're already doing. I mentioned the conflict that there could be around really wanting to make sure that this funding is obtained, that the awards are made, as compared with the risk of discrimination if it's alleged that you are offering people roles purely because of their minority ethnic background. So, one of the pieces of work that we're doing with clients within the university sector is an assessment of their recruitment practices in order to further the number of people, applicants, that they might be getting from a minority ethnic background. What changes can be made? What tweaks can be made? What is allowed to be done? What can they be putting in their job descriptions, for example. So, just really legalising and ensuring that they can still be able to get an increased number of applicants from a minority ethnic background. Of course, the more people you've got in your applicant pool the more likely it is you'll be able to pull those through into a role with the decision, of course, being solely based on merit, albeit you've been able to have a greater number of people from minority ethnic background. So, we do a lot of work with clients to counsel them through that and to, for example, look at their job descriptions, or the vacancies themselves, without bordering, or straying into, something that could be seen to be race discrimination.”
The timeline for the REF runs until 2028 but in the short term, in the Summer of 2023, we have what they are calling the ‘Initial decisions consultation’ on potential people, culture and environment indicators. That will run until 6 October 2023 at which point an open access consultation begins. All the details are set out in the REF 2028 document and we have put a link to it in the transcript of this programme for you.
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