[Reallyopenuniannounce] FW: Response to Sausage Factory Issue 7 22nd March

[Thomas Collins]

Dear ROU,

I don't know if this is the right place to post this or whatever...But
anyways, after having a close read of the Sausage Factory article
given to me today, about the metricisation/neoliberalism of University
performance in research and teaching, I thought I'd formulate - as a
masters/phd student - a little response to it if anyone's interested.

Firstly, an interesting article, quite thought provoking. I agree with
the link made between quantitative performance measures of research
and teaching and the move towards building evidence and 'facts' to
justify raising tuition fees.  I also agree with the link made within
the article between how pressure to guarantee research income in
university relates to the determination of the type, nature and
quality of the research that people generate. I would only caution
here however that to assume REF-led reseach projects are by nature
always a "watered down exercise in costumer service" is to deny the
agency of the researcher to learn and gain from it (as well for the
readers) and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, this seems to
assert a pre-defined notion of what 'good' or 'better' research looks
like.  This last point is simply to say what empirical evidence is
there to suggest that a non REF-pressured research paper is 'better'
than one which was done in the name of pandering to management and the
REF (normally you would think it is, but it ontologises what good
research is). To rid objectivity of any performantive
function/production in universities out of the picture completely is
perhaps the more radical step for this article's argument.

On teaching: I would certainly agree that teacher assessment exercises
whether through the NSS or module feedback forms are an inaccurate and
a neoliberal bureuacracy exercise that I would suspect few students
are really bothered about. I suppose, as I am not a lecturer, I
couldn't claim to know how the NSS affects tutors personally at work
in the University. However I would suggest there is a general apathy
from the students side about examining teaching and 'being on the side
of lecturers' in some sense. Very few people really give any thought
to student feedback forms for modules, and many of them, are indeed
quantitative. I guess my question here would be outside a model of NSS
and student module feedback forms, what should our testimony (or
appraisal) of teaching look like? Simply qualitative accounts of how
great or how bad our lecturers were? Of course this relates back down
to whether REF/Neoliberalism/Abstract Labour processes in the world of
research is now, or perhaps as ever, more harmfully dividing those
that are good at teaching compared those that do research. And how do
students express this?

Diligent consciousness always.

Keep up the good work, and look forward to reading more...



Tom
M.A Social + Cultural Geography









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