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The Research Challenge Faced by the New Universities in the UK
Author(s) -
McKenna P. Gerald
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2273.1996.tb01694.x
Subject(s) - excellence , competition (biology) , white paper , government (linguistics) , hegemony , higher education , white (mutation) , public administration , political science , public relations , management , sociology , economic growth , economics , politics , law , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , biology
The 1991 Government White Paper which abolished the binary divide in British universities brought the former polytechnics (new universities) into direct competition with the traditional (old) universities for research funds from the Funding Councils based on periodic Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs). The outcome of the 1992 RAE showed a predictable gap in research performance between the two groups of institutions. The challenge facing the new universities will be for some, at least, to narrow the gap and/or develop a small number of centres of research excellence and thus challenge the long standing research hegemony enjoyed by the old universities. This will almost certainly involve intense selectivity in the allocation of available research resources and will be influenced by the‘missions’of the institutions involved, the extent of underlying support for such developments and the management structures and style employed.