UK research assessment is being reformed — but the changes miss the mark

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.
Advertisement
Richard Watermeyer is professor of higher education and co-director of the Centre for Higher Education Transformations at the University of Bristol, UK.
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Gemma Derrick is associate professor of higher education at the University of Bristol, UK.
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Kate Sang is a gender- and employment-studies researcher and director of the Centre for Research on Employment, Work and the Professions (CREWS) at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
On 15 June, updated rules were proposed for the next round of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the assessment system used to distribute around £2 billion (US$2.5 billion) of annual funding across UK universities. These were unveiled by the United Kingdom’s four higher-education funding agencies.

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
£14.99 / 30 days
cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
£199.00 per year
only £3.90 per issue

Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02469-w
This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Research assessment exercises are necessary — but we need to learn to do them better
More carrot, less stick: how to make research assessments fairer
Time to celebrate science’s ‘hidden’ contributors
New UK immigration rules threaten academic mobility
Correspondence 02 JAN 24
How sharing your science in an opinion piece can boost your career
Career Feature 02 JAN 24
How an AI-powered lion became a teaching tool
Career Column 22 DEC 23
Is Brazil ready for gender equality in science?
Correspondence 19 DEC 23
The scientific workplace in 2023
Career Feature 18 DEC 23
How a bullying scandal closed a historic astronomy department
News 15 DEC 23
If you want something done right, do it yourself: the scientists who build their own tools
Career Feature 13 DEC 23
How high-impact papers from Indian researchers are shaping science
Spotlight 13 DEC 23
How to make data open? Stop overlooking librarians
World View 12 DEC 23