Research Assessment Exercise 2008

Historically, research in AHRA's core areas of interest - architectural history, theory, culture, design and urbanism - has been significantly under-represented within the Research Assessment Exercise. As this process impacts on the allocation of substantial resources from the Higher Education Funding Councils in the UK, university researchers in architectural humanities have been disadvantaged in the distribution of research funding.

AHRA has been campaigning for better representation in the build-up to RAE 2008. Following our response to the consultation on the Roberts Report in September 2003, AHRA was included on HEFCE's official list of nominating bodies for membership of the new RAE assessment panels. Alongside the RIBA and Schosa, AHRA pushed for an overhaul of the 'Built Environment' panel, which has consequently been renamed 'Architecture and the Built Environment'. In total, 8 of AHRA's nominations were offered places on Panel 30, providing a broader range of expertise and a stronger voice for architectural humanities. The full membership includes:

Chair:

Alan Penn (University College London)

Members:

  • Sarah Chaplin (Kingston University)
  • Richard Coyne (University of Edinburgh)
  • Murray Fraser (University of Westminster)
  • Colin Gray (University of Reading)
  • Phillip Jones (Cardiff University)
  • David Langford (University of Strathclyde)
  • Jim Meikle (Davis Langdon PKS)
  • Simon Pepper (University of Liverpool)
  • Koen Steemers (University of Cambridge)
  • Robert Tavernor (London School of Economics)
  • Antony Thorpe (Loughborough University)
  • Jeremy Till (University of Sheffield)
  • Christopher Tweed (Queen's University Belfast)
  • Catherine Ward Thompson (Edinburgh College of Art)
  • John Worthington (DEGW Ltd)
  • Terry Wyatt (Hoare Lea)

AHRA will continue to canvas support for architectural humanities research in the run-up to the RAE. If you have specific points you would like to be raised by AHRA as part of this process, please email suggestions to the address below:

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Further details can be found on the RAE website at: http://www.rae.ac.uk/

DfES Consultation on Metrics:

AHRA will also be responding to the latest government consultation on the possible future use of metric data for research assessment in the UK. For more details on this, and to find out how to respond individually, please follow this link:

http://www.dfes.gov.uk/consultations/conDetails.cfm?consultationId=1404

If you have specific comments you would like AHRA to include in its response to the consultation, please let us know by 30 September 2006, on the email address above.