The metric tide: an agenda for responsible indicators in research

Across research, the metric tide is rising. An independent report published today argues that we have the opportunity to influence how it washes through higher education and research.

Yesterday's Budget brought good news for those vice-chancellors who have been lobbying to raise student tuition fees above the current 9,000 annual cap. But it came with a sting in the tail: George Osborne said that fees could rise in line with inflation only for those universities "that demonstrate excellence in teaching". This will be assessed through a new Teaching Excellence Framework, or TEF, to be introduced alongside the Research Excellence Framework (REF), which is used to allocate around 1.6 billion each year on the research side of the system.

Chris Cook, policy editor of Newsnight, suggested yesterday that linking fee rises to "excellent" tuition in this way "will mess with the Russell Group's head." And it's true that the prospect of yet another layer of audit and assessment in universities is enough to make many academics weep. A letter to the Guardian this week from 121 professors reflects the concern of many in the sector about "continuous pressures to standardise, conform, obey and duplicate in order to be "transparent" to measurement". A related call for "slow scholarship" and active resistance to the acceleration of academic life has been doing the rounds on blogs and social media over recent weeks.