The steering group for REF2029 recently issued a call for individuals to nominate themselves as members of subject panels, including that for History.

While the RHS encourages its members to consider applying, and will be running an information event for potential nominees on Friday 7 March 2025, we — together with other organisations who have been asked to nominate potential participants in the past — have some serious concerns about the implications of the new self-nomination policy. 

Although we welcome REF’s strong statement on diversifying panels for 2029, and its appreciation of ‘the critical role that inclusive representation plays in ensuring the REF assessment process reflects the breadth and vitality of UK research’, we are concerned that the current funding crisis and extensive inequalities in working conditions seen across UK HE will mean that the greater number of panel members are drawn from an increasingly small number of institutions.

There is currently little detail from the REF steering group on how its new self-nomination model will work in practice, or on how gaps in panel membership will be addressed; and there is confusion about the time commitment panel membership will require. As many former History panellists confirm, membership is very rewarding in terms of learning about our discipline and its current practice. But being a panellist is also hugely time-consuming and will far exceed the ‘approximately 40 to 60 days of time over the course of the exercise’ currently stated on the REF2029 website. 

Colleagues in a growing number of HE institutions are unlikely to be able to access the kind of teaching and administrative relief identified as necessary by past panellists in order to participate fully in membership of a REF2029 panel. We are concerned that in the current environment it will prove difficult, if not impossible, for many aspirant panellists to convince their institutions of the merits of panel participation.

REF’s current ‘Build it and they will come’ approach sits awkwardly with the current realities and reduced opportunities of academic life, especially for those in the humanities. At best, it is a risky approach to fostering diversity of panel membership. Without further attention it may fail.

 Please see here to read our longer blog post on this subject.

 

The President, Officers and Council of the Royal Historical Society

February 2025