Unaligned allies

A new grouping of university heads called for the retention of the 2008 research assessment exercise in its first statement this week.

The Alliance of Non-aligned Universities, which represents institutions with interests in research, teaching, enterprise and innovation activities, adds that it wants to be consulted on future RAE decisions.

The group will be convened by John Craven, vice-chancellor of Portsmouth University, and is likely to include 30 institutions in total. Universities attending last week's inaugural meeting were: Aston, Bournemouth, Cranfield, De Montfort, Hertfordshire, Kent, Leicester, Lincoln, Manchester Metropolitan, Newport, Nottingham Trent, Open, Oxford Brookes, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Salford, Sheffield Hallam and Wales.