RAE discourages legal teamwork

Nearly half of all law lecturers believe the research assessment exercise discourages teamwork and departmental cohesiveness, according to a national survey by Stirling University. Doug Vick, of Stirling's department of accountancy, finance and law, found that while more than half the law professors thought the RAE was largely or completely objective, only 16 per cent of lecturers agreed. "The data indicates that while many lecturers have little faith in the objectivity of the RAE, they believe management assumptions about their contributions to departmental submissions will affect their career progression." More than 40 per cent of respondents said the RAE had a negative or very negative effect on the quality of legal research, although professors were twice as likely as other academics to see the RAE's impact as positive.