The board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England has not approved a new research assessment method nor a new research assessment exercise timetable as you report. It received Sir Gareth Roberts' report on the review of research assessment and agreed that it should be published in May as a basis for a three-month consultation. Hefce will not take a view on the recommendations until that consultation has closed.
The report does not propose that scores are attached to each researcher entered for the exercise. Nor does it make detailed recommendations about funding. The reference to "token payment" for those institutions that opt out of the peer-review component of the RAE is misleading. Readers will be able to judge the report's content for themselves when it comes out next month.
Rama Thirunamachandran
Director, research and knowledge transfer
Higher Education Funding Council for England