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Preparing impact submissions for REF 2014: An evaluation

Findings and observations

by Catriona Manville, Molly Morgan Jones, Michael Frearson, Sophie Castle-Clarke, Marie-Louise Henham, Salil Gunashekar, Jonathan Grant

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The higher education councils for England and Wales and the Scottish funding council asked RAND Europe to review the preparation process for the impact element of the Research Excellence Framework 2014 within higher education institutions in the UK, in order to assess the process and understand how it could be further improved.

This report summarises the approach adopted for the evaluation and describes the key findings and observations arising from the analysis. It is intended for those responsible for the REF and, more broadly, for those in the higher education sector. It may also be of interest to others working in the evaluation of research impact.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Introduction

  • Chapter Two

    The benefit and burden of assessing research impact as part of REF 2014

  • Chapter Three

    Implementing the assessment of research impact as part of REF 2014

  • Chapter Four

    Attitudes to and consequences of assessing research impact as part of REF 2014

  • Chapter Five

    Improving the preparation and submission process for future REF exercises

  • Chapter Six

    Concluding observations

Research conducted by

The research described in this report was prepared for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and was conducted by RAND Europe.

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