RAE Results

[purplecat]

The results of the Research Assessment Exercise came in yesterday.


Liverpool CS got 30% of outputs ranked 4 (world-leading), 45% ranked 3 (not sure what that means) and 25% ranked 2 (nationally important) and none ranked 1.

This gave us an overall score of 3.05 (?!) which puts us 10th in some league table... There was, apparently, champagne available yesterday but I wasn't in the department so didn't get any. I'm told those above Liverpool were Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester, Imperial, Nottingham, Southampton, Lancaster and Glasgow (not in that order - I think Cambridge was top overall in CS) but I've not checked and the person who told me was dredging it up from memory.

B. doesn't appear to have the Life Science results yet but Manchester overall (on some league table - and the exciting thing about this RAE seems to be that there are several ways to rank the results so everyone gets a chance to look good) has come third behind Oxford and Cambridge and above Imperial and UCL. Apparently there is some clear water between the top five and the rest of the league table.

This presumably means the madness is now over for another five years...

EDIT: B has just sent me a different League table in which Manchester is joint third with UCL, followed by Edinburgh with Imperial 6th. Overall Liverpool comes out 18th on that table which means, I guess, that Liverpool Computer Science is doing better research-wise than an "average" Liverpool department.

EDIT 2: Just seen my boss who is confidently predicting a reworked league table in the near future in which average score is modified in some way by grant income - presumably a "research value for money" league table. Liverpool CS expects to do well on this because "everyone above us has a lot more money". Manchester, he tells me, is looking forward to a "research power" table in which score is multiplied (in some way) by number of people submitted - they expect to do well on this because they submitted a lot more people than Oxbridge...

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

This sounds like good news; well done to both of you.

[purplecat]

Just had a gossipy project meeting with my boss who confidently expects us to do better on some further league tables which are being worked up a we speak.

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

Congratulations -- you did well! Ours was more or less as expected; a handful of 4*, a few more 3* and then the others 2* and 1*.

I suspect there will be a few weeks of celebrating/beating of chests across the sector and then, I hope, some peace and quiet so we can get on with research *g*.

[purplecat]

You do wonder if it was worth the effort. My PhD supervisor was on the panel and has spent the last year reading and ranking 1200 papers, which is just a mind-numbing thought. Was this really the best way to occupy one of the country's finest minds in Computer Science?

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

That just makes me want to rock backwards and forwards with frustration! When you think of the time it has tied up across the sector which could have been better used on teaching and research, it makes you want to cry or scream . . .

[lukadreaming.livejournal.com]

We've just been sent a better breakdown on ours, and it's surprisingly positive. My research spans two subject areas -- one of which is the 4* one (although sadly my outputs won't have been in that category!). In the other, which was entered for the first time, we did far better than expected and got some 3* and 2*. Our research bod is now jumping up and down and yabbering frantically about what dosh we might get out of it. No one's holding their breath *g*.

[purplecat]

That sounds like good news. Where are you if that's not too personal a question?

I can't imagine much money will be forthcoming to anyone in the current economic climate.

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

Er.... No. This is blindingly obvious to everyone except the government, apparently... Neuromancer