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[orienteer]

So I remained loyal to my Russell Group urban-U. Its too late now to chase the offers I had and refused - the posts have been filled, and anyway, the period of notice my U requires takes me past the RAE cut-off.

The reward for my loyalty? I have been told I can only access £1k max of my research account, which holds around £6K. This money, btw, the majority of which I earned as consultancy on top of my normal duties, and which I could have chosen, at the time, to have paid to me on top of my salary. But, no, I thought, I need that money for research.

Faculty have badmouthed the RAE. But is this an example of what happens once the power it gives us as employees has gone? We can be treated badly, because, hey, what we gonna do?

[expatinuk]

I wouldn't blame the RAE... instead it's your Uni that's behaving like a XXXX

[qrypt]

Have they told you what is to become of the other £5k ? 

I want to get some sort of consulting gig going, and this is the sort of thing that makes me think, it's worth it to take the 40% hit on taxes to make sure that it ends up in my pocket. 

[scotia]

Orienteer I think I have a number of friends at your university. One friend is particularly bitter: he is on sabbatical and had carefully put money into a research pot in the university to fund travel during his sabbatical. Now he is stuck in the UK because he faces the same GBP1K restriction as everyone else. He was not told about the restrictions until after his sabbatical started.

Is this something the AUT might be willing to fight on? Can you insist on being paid and take the 40% hit? I agree with Expat that it is not an RAE issue - if it is the university I am thinking of then my understanding is that the measures being taken would have been necessary even if the RAE cut-off date had been 12 months from now.

[donstefano]

I also fear for my 'bargaining power' now RAE has passed. Some have suggested that I could now stop with that publication Buls** and get back to earning money for the dept by doing consulting. As if my main motivation to publish was the RAE... No, I'm worried - some colleagues here who appear to be proud of not being included in the RAE, feeling themsleves superior because they feel they do work that is more relevant... (every excue for not publishing is OK I guess?)

[dyst_uk]

Is this something the AUT might be willing to fight on? Can you insist on being paid and take the 40% hit? I agree with Expat that it is not an RAE issue - if it is the university I am thinking of then my understanding is that the measures being taken would have been necessary even if the RAE cut-off date had been 12 months from now.

Would this happen to be a university that is thinking about rebranding?

[scotia]

I also fear for my 'bargaining power' now RAE has passed. Some have suggested that I could now stop with that publication Buls** and get back to earning money for the dept by doing consulting. As if my main motivation to publish was the RAE... No, I'm worried - some colleagues here who appear to be proud of not being included in the RAE, feeling themsleves superior because they feel they do work that is more relevant... (every excue for not publishing is OK I guess?)

I have mixed feelings about the bargaining power of some individuals that has arisen from the RAE. In one corner we have people who are in the RAE and contributing fully to departmental life in terms of service and teaching. I am all for leaving these people to get on with their work - they are making  a full contribution to departmental life. In the opposite corner we have the 'RAE prima donnas' who have used the threat to leave in order to negotiate reduced service and teaching requirements (their work was dumped on the lower echelons who should been developing their research agendas but were instead hugely overloaded with teaching and committee work). The contribution of some people to the university post-RAE is looking very, very thin. In our group the teaching and service loads vary hugely according to whether people played the 'improve on this offer or I leave' game. I know our Dean and many of the put-upon junior staff are looking forward with great anticipation to the prima donna brigade being told that they now have to match the rest of us for productivity in all areas.

[donstefano]

Partly agree, scotia. The most tangible result of RAE has been the transfer of senior academics to other universities, where they now receive a much higher income with lower teaching duties and administration, and the same research requirements. So we are paying more to get less as a result...

Yes, there is an issue about prima donnas, but who's to blame? the prima donnas, or the target-chasing departments? And I guess this issue will remain, because the academic market is bigger than just the UK.

On the other hand: RAE created some positive pressure, and some people started publishing as a result. I'm afraid some will fall asleep again and will go back to their former deadwood status.

[expatinuk]

I'd much rather have someone in my dept who contributes to the dept than someone who publishes yet doesn't contribute.

With the risk of offending the guy who hates Americans...

I'd love to see a system where Research, Teaching, and Service are used in the UK for promotion.

We do that here for promotion to Professor... we have to show strengths in all areas, but I don't know what it's like to move from Lecturer to Sr. Lecturer.

[qrypt]

Orienteer, another question you might pose to your employer: what now is the incentive for you to do any further consulting work?

[donstefano]

With us normal criteria for L=>Sl are exellence in at least two out of: research
teaching
administration.

So just research is not enough. Promotion to reader can be based on research excellence alone. Promotion to full needs to be based on all three.
That's at least the normal procedure, where there's a yearly promotions process. But of course there's also the other, fast-track procedure (eg when there are other offers). Then it's the head of dept/school making acase for promotion because the person is essential to the school. This can lead to promotion based on just 1 criterion

[the_walrus]

I'd love to see a system where Research, Teaching, and Service are used in the UK for promotion.

We do that here for promotion to Professor... we have to show strengths in all areas, but I don't know what it's like to move from Lecturer to Sr. Lecturer.

All three are required for promotion for lecturer to sr. lecturer in my (Russell Group uni) department.

[expatinuk]

qypt.... that's an excellent question. I know that I hesitate to do a lot of consulting because my uni top slices a significant amount. They also don't like to take hours off my time table... so consulting hits me financially all over.

[science_expat]

In my place you choose your track for promotion to full - research OR teaching and learning OR academic enterprise. I went down the research route.

We have the opposite problem in the T&L vs. research argument - namely a bunch of folks who do NO research but complain bitterly when asked to undertake more teaching and/or administration. They have not the faintest idea of the time and effort required to do good research.

[scotia]

With us normal criteria for L=>Sl are exellence in at least two out of: research
teaching
administration.

So just research is not enough. Promotion to reader can be based on research excellence alone. Promotion to full needs to be based on all three.

This is what we are told. The reality recently has been that an 'excellent' for research trumps 'poor' in teaching and service but 'excellent's in teaching and service will not get you promoted with a 'performing at the required level' for research.