Research Assessment: The UK Experience and Prospects for the Future

Research Assessment: The UK Experience and Prospects for the Future

Professor Alis Oancea
University of Oxford

October 15, 2021 (Friday)
16:30 – 17:30 HK Time, via Zoom
Chair: Professor Yang Rui

Abstract:
The talk will introduce the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF), with particular emphasis on changes in REF 2021 compared to REF 2014; highlight several ongoing trends in the assessment of research; and discuss their implications for current interpretations of research excellence. It will also introduce an ongoing large-scale comparative research project on research assessment systems. The talk will conclude by suggesting some starting points for reimagining research assessment as part of more principled change of the current research governance regime.

About the speaker:
Alis Oancea is Professor of Philosophy of Education and Research Policy in the Department of Education, University of Oxford.  She specialises in studies of research policy and governance and in philosophy of research – including work on research assessment, impact and knowledge exchange, research funding, research quality, evaluation, open knowledge practices, research ethics, capacity, publication practices, and the cultural value of research in the arts and the humanities.
Professor Oancea has a DPhil from Oxford in critical discourses about educational research, and a prior PhD in epistemology and research.  She has advised various bodies on research assessment, capacity, research policy and teacher education in many contexts, including in the UK Research England, the agency responsible for the Research Excellence Framework (REF); the British Academy; the Norwegian Government; and the European Commission.  She is editor of the Oxford Review of Education, as well as leading the Research on Research programme of the Centre for Global Higher Education.  Publications include ‘Assessing quality in applied and practice‐based research in education’ (Routledge, 2007); ‘Introduction to Research Methods in Education’ (Sage, 2014); ‘Research governance and the future of research assessment’ (https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0213-6); ‘The ecologies and economy of cultural value from research’ (https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2015.1128418); and ‘Assessing research impact in academic clinical medicine: a study using REF pilot impact indicators’ (https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-12-478).

~ ALL ARE WELCOME ~

For enquiries, please contact the Office of Research, Faculty of Education at hkchow@hku.hk