8th December 2005, 04:54 PM
Mercenary wrote...
This has happened a lot in the last few years. The last RAE was 2001, the next one is 2007, so a lot of mergers/closurs are taking place at the moment.
Sometimes a department is merged with other artsy social sciences (history or classics) sometimes with the artsy end of the earth sciences (eg. geography).
Quote:quote:I don't think it is a coincidence that a number of arch departments are now closingActually the reason is more to do with point-scoring in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). This takes place every seven years and produces a mad fury of academic job-swapping. If the department doesn't get the 4 or 5 rating most universities require (the rating affects the amount of funding from central government), it will then be merged with other departments to create a 'cluster' with more hope of attracting the 5 rating.
This has happened a lot in the last few years. The last RAE was 2001, the next one is 2007, so a lot of mergers/closurs are taking place at the moment.
Sometimes a department is merged with other artsy social sciences (history or classics) sometimes with the artsy end of the earth sciences (eg. geography).