The 1996 Research Assessment Exercise in British universities: views from the judging and the judged

Abstract

ANTIQUITY invited a member of the Research Assessment panel for archaeology in British universities to write about the exercise. He declined; as the matter was sub judice, he must be silent. Perhaps that phrase defines the colleague as judge, rather than as peer-reviewer.Fortunately, Barry Cunliffe, chairman of the archaeology review panel (and of ANTIQUITY'S trustees), made public his views in his Presidential Anniversary Address to the Society of Antiquaries of April 1995 —before the current assessment got under way. We reprint it with permission. Professor Cunliffe starts with a brisk reminder—overlooked by our coverage in the March ANTIQUITY—of the real benefits of asking just what researchers do for their money in the supposedly tranquil and desirable échelons of our universities.