REF changes could leave arts researchers’ careers ‘in limbo’

Researchers in performing arts subjects could find their careers “in limbo or potentially ended” due to planned changes to how the impact of academic research is evaluated, senior academics have warned.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF), which informs the allocation of about £2bn of research funding, will carry out its next evaluation exercise in 2029.

But a number of performing arts subject associations – representing dance, music, drama and other disciplines – have warned that the intended approach will make it harder for researchers to find work. Meanwhile, universities will be able to capitalise on the work of staff they have made redundant.

The concerns focus on plans to remove “output portability”, meaning that research output will be attributed to institutions rather than individuals.

Under the plans, a university could submit research outputs to the REF produced by a researcher that has since left, while the researcher would not be able to associate their previous output with any new institution they joined.

‘Restriction of trade’

In a joint letter to REF director Rebecca Fairbairn, the subject associations say that this represents a “restriction of trade” that will “hamper sector mobility” – because new hires without submissible REF outputs “represent a suboptimal proposition” for employers.

The letter’s authors also say the change will “have negative impacts on universities’ responsibilities to equity, diversity and inclusion”, as the effect will be “asymmetrical” depending on the type of contract researchers hold.

The associations are calling for the REF to give “due consideration… to output portability so that past and present employers… may each claim a link to a researcher’s published outputs”.

The letter follows similar calls earlier this month from subject associations representing english language, literature, linguistics and creative writing.

Senior leaders at the English Association, the Institute of English Studies and University English also wrote to Fairbairn, voicing concerns about “the risks of decoupling staff from outputs”.

They acknowledge that this concept was introduced in the last REF in 2021 “to address a perception that wealthier institutions were… poaching staff and their outputs”. 

“In these uncertain times, there is now a worry that REF 2029 will enable a different injustice,” the letter says, “that institutions can hold onto the outputs of staff they have sacked, while making it harder for them to gain new academic employment because they are no longer linked to the work they created”.

The 2021 REF took a “transitional approach” to non-portability, where a researcher’s current employer and the institution where the research was generated could both submit outputs.

But the REF has decided that the next evaluation exercise will “fully break the link between individual staff members and unit submissions”.

The letter from the performing arts associations says that “the current climate of cost cutting in the sector, including redundancies, voluntary severance and restructuring bears especially on the issue of portability”.

The authors say that in their REF 2029 submissions, higher education institutions should declare the number of staff who have left under these conditions.

The letter was written by the chairs of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS), DanceHE, DramaHE, the Society for Dance Research and the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA), and the president of the Royal Musical Association.

‘Severe impact’

Stephen Dobson, associate professor in creativity and enterprise at the University of Leeds, told Arts Professional that in an already challenging climate for arts researchers, he believes non-portability “will severely impact negatively on colleagues who may have to move institutions because of necessity”. 

“This is likely to have most impact on early career researchers for whom workplace precarity is already a huge concern,” he said.

“The decision to rule out portability of outputs will therefore be an additional career impact on those working on fixed-term contracts, from project to project, as well as those having to find new employment elsewhere because of course closures and staffing cuts.”

A spokesperson for the REF said the REF 2029 policy is under active development and will be published by summer at the latest.

“The UK’s higher education funding bodies are aware of the concerns in the sector and the REF team is engaging widely as we develop this policy,” the spokesperson said.

“The funding bodies are committed to fully breaking the link between individual staff members and submitted outputs in the initial decisions and we are working with the sector to develop the policy around this.”