Joint letter from the UK performing arts subject associations: British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS), DanceHE, DramaHE, Royal Musical Association, Society for Dance Research and Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) to Rebecca Fairbairn, REF Director

Dear Rebecca Fairbairn,

We write on behalf of the above subject associations for the performing arts, in support of the letter you have received from the English Association (https://englishassociation.ac.uk/ref2029-concerns-about-the-implications-of-decoupling) and to share our concerns about the risks of non-portability of outputs for REF2029.

As you are well aware, the UK HE sector is in an extended – and for some existential – crisis. As of the date of this letter, 90 UK HEIs are reported as being in some form of restructure, voluntary severance or redundancy rounds, with arts and humanities especially impacted (source: https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking)

The UK HE community all want to ensure that REF2029 is fair, transparent, trusted and sustainable; and that any negative unintended consequences are mitigated. To that end we reinforce the points made in the open letter from the English Association, namely:

1. That due consideration is given to output portability so that past and present employers within a census period may each claim a link to a researcher’s published outputs (within an agreed number of years following publication). We believe the removal of output portability represents restraint of trade: individual researchers will find their careers in limbo or potentially ended if their current institution retains their outputs for REF submission at the end of their employment. This situation will hamper sector mobility, as new hires with non-submissible REF outputs represent a suboptimal proposition for any new employing institution. We concur with the English Association that this will have negative impacts on universities’ responsibilities to equity, diversity, and inclusion, as it will have asymmetrical impact on careers dependent on types of contract, and who hold such contracts. The current climate of cost cutting in the sector, including redundancies, voluntary severance and restructuring bears especially on the issue of portability. We would therefore ask that HEIs should declare in their REF2029 submission the number of staff (headcount and FTE) who have left under such conditions.
2. That the People Culture and Environment indicators and process (following explicit signals that the current pilot does not indicate the final approach) will recognise (i) the current existential challenges to the entirety of UK HE, and (ii) how these challenges manifest in different provider contexts.

We trust that this letter is received in the spirit it is sent – one of collegiality, rigour and commitment to a fair REF process which supports and not injures the UK higher education ecology. The subject associations have a vital role to play in representing and stewarding the sector, and we urge you to engage with us on future consultations.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Hunter, Dr. Victor Ladron de Guevara, Dr. Rashna Nicholson, co-Chairs of DramaHE
Dr. Natalie Garrett Brown, Chair of DanceHE
Dr. Broderick Chow, Prof. Royona Mitra, co-Chairs of Theatre and Performance Research Association
Dr. Kathryn Stamp, Dr. Sinibaldo de Rosa, co-Chairs of Society for Dance Research
Prof. Simon Keefe, President of the Royal Musical Association
Dr. Gabor Gergely, Chair of British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies