More join RAE lynch mob

The integrity of the research assessment exercise suffered another setback this week as academics called for an inquiry into the dismal performance of pharmacology and physiology.

The two disciplines that underpin the pharmaceutical industry face cutbacks that may see departments at Edinburgh and Bristol universities and University College London broken up.

Last week, environmental scientists said they were considering taking the Higher Education Funding Council for England to a judicial review after their subject's poor showing in the RAE. Now the British Pharmacological Society and the Physiological Society have written to Sir Howard Newby, chief executive of Hefce, insisting that the assessment was unrepresentative of the quality of their members' research.

Of the 20 submissions in the 2001 exercise, only five departments improved on their 1996 performance, four did worse, and the average score rose only fractionally.

The scientists have not questioned the integrity of the joint-assessment panel but feel they were the victims of inconsistency.

While the panel followed the prescribed procedures, the letter suggests they may have applied different criteria from other panels that seemed to have boosted grades.

The societies warn that the resulting loss of funding could close departments and lower the standing of both disciplines.

"Paradoxically, the erosion in the perception of physiology and pharmacology comes at a time when these subjects are assuming greater importance in the biological sciences," the letter says.

Colin Blakemore, president of the physiological society and professor of physiology at Oxford University, said some universities had entered physiologists and pharmacologists under different subjects to get a better result.

"They have been consistently underrated over three successive RAEs," he said.

One possible casualty could be UCL's department of physiology. It lost a third of its research income after maintaining a four rating. Jonathan Ashmore, professor of biophysics, described this as a "shot in the head" and said the department was considering an appeal.

The department of neuroscience at Edinburgh University is also earmarked for closure. Head of the department Richard Morris said that across the country, neuroscience had been submitted to many different panels for assessment. "It appears there has been a colossal failure on the part of Hefce to achieve comparability between panels," Professor Morris said.

Peter Cotgreave, director of pressure group Save British Science, said that the RAE could damage the UK's pharmaceutical industry.

"Companies that invest heavily in research will no longer have a large base of well-trained people from which to draw their talent and could decide to move elsewhere," he warned.