“As the clock ticks down to midnight, more than 50,000 academics across the UK wait to see how their research rates in comparison with their rivals (sorry, colleagues) in their fields. They already know how they themselves have been judged by the expert panels of the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 and are basking in the approval of their peers – or smarting from a crass failure to see the value of their research work over the past four years. But at midnight the results are made public on Guardian.co.uk/education and other websites and they can see how they have fared against the competition. With passions running high one vice-chancellor confessed that he felt as if he had staked the family inheritance on the 3.15 at Wincanton. There will be some sore heads in the morning …” (more)
[Donald MacLeod, Guardian, 17 December]