British universities are to be more richly rewarded by the government
if they carry out industrial research. In the past, universities have complained
that the government鈥檚 higher education funding councils were biased in favour
of purely academic work. Those that did large amounts of industrial rather
than academic research said they received less money than they deserved.
Last week, however, the funding councils of England, Northern Ireland,
Scotland and Wales promised to give equal weight to pure and applied research
when they set university budgets. The change of tack reflects the government鈥檚
preoccupation with wealth creation, which was spelt out in last year鈥檚 White
Paper on science and technology and in last month鈥檚 White Paper on competitiveness.
Every four years, the councils rate the quality of research at all university
departments. On the basis of these ratings, they divide up the money earmarked
for university research by the Department for Education 鈥� usually about
拢1 billion.
Advertisement
For years, universities that are strong in applied research, such as
Salford, Bradford, Aston and Brunel, have complained that their departments
were not fairly rated by panels loaded with academics. 鈥業n the 1986 assessment,
we were disgracefully undervalued because they were assessing things on
old-fashioned, academic criteria,鈥� says Tom Husband, the vice-chancellor
of the University of Salford.
In the next assessment, in 1996, the review panels will be instructed
to 鈥榞ive full recognition to research work of direct relevance to the needs
of industry and commerce鈥�, says a joint statement from the councils.
In a further change for 1996, departments will not be asked how many
research papers their staff members have published. Instead, each member
will have to submit their best four 鈥榳orks鈥� for assessment. The review panels
hope this will give a better measure of quality, and will accept patents
as well as other forms of publication. 鈥楶atents are well worthy of submission,鈥�
says David Johns, the vice-chancellor of the University of Bradford. 鈥楢ny
form of measurable output where quality can be seen is fair.鈥�
It also emerged this week that the education department has earmarked
an extra 拢10 million, to be distributed via the funding councils
to universities that carry out the most industrial research.
Figures published this week show which universities earned most from
industry in 1992/3. The University of London, with its many constituent
colleges, is way ahead of the rest with a figure of 拢29.56 million.
The University of Nottingham came second, followed by Cambridge and Oxford.
The 鈥榯op ten earners鈥� included three Scottish universities. These figures
on university earnings appear for the first time in this year鈥檚 UK R&D
Scoreboard, which is compiled for the government by Company Reporting of
Edinburgh.
The statistics do not show directly which universities earn the highest
proportion of their R&D income from industrial contracts. By this measure,
universities such as Salford and Bradford score highly. Work for industry
earned each of them half as much as they received from the research councils,
for example.
