History
The first exercise of assessing University research in the UK took place in 1986 under the Margaret Thatcher Government. It was conducted by the University Grants Committee, a predecessor of the present Higher Education Funding Councils. The purpose of the exercise was to determine the allocation of funding to UK Universities at a time of tight budgetary restrictions. The committee received submissions of research statements from subject areas ("cost centres") within Universities, and issued quality rankings labelled "outstanding", "above average", "average" or "below average". The research funding allocated to Universities (called "quality-related" funding) depended on the quality ratings of the subject areas.
Two subsequent research assessments were conducted in 1989 and 1992 under the name "research selectivity exercise" by the Universities Funding Council. These were followed by "research assessment exercises" conducted in 1996, 2001 and 2008 jointly by the various UK Higher Education Funding Councils.
Read more about this topic: Research Assessment Exercise
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