after 1800 (François Guesnet), the Hebrew of late Enlightenment writers (Lily Kahn), Jewish DPs in post-War Germany (Michael Berkowitz), and Lisbon in World War II (Neill Lochery). This range of titles and subjects reflects, Let’s get straight down to business. I am on its own, the richness and variety of our glad to report that the Department has research activities. been very busy, for a change, and on several fronts. First of all, it is a great This said, we should not lose sight of the relief that we have finally completed our fact that the REF is a politically driven submission for REF2014. For those who exercise, of which the main purpose is to don’t know, REF stands for Research commercialize research and get us to do Excellence Framework (I know, what a what the Government thinks the taxpayer ridiculous name); it is an exercise that wants. The whole operation of the REF must be carried out every six years by all costs a huge amount of public money. Higher Education institutions, to assess Besides the central REF apparatus itself, their performance in the area of research. UCL – like all other Higher Education We need to submit samples of our institutions – have been funding an entire publications (books, articles, etc.) as well department just to handle its REF as a set of extended statements submission. The REF also costs a huge demonstrating the quality of our research amount of our own time and work. It has and ‘research environment’, the taken about three years (I am not achievements of our staff and research exaggerating) to plan our submission, (PhD) students, and most challengingly, compile all the materials and the evidence, the ‘impact’ of our research on wider and draft the necessary documents. It has society. been hugely important to get this right, as the Department’s funding for the next six Our REF2014 submission includes very years will largely depend on the results of impressive work. We have brought out this assessment; but I am sure we will do books on ancient Babylonian medicine very well. (Mark Geller), rabbis, language, and translation (Willem Smelik), calendars in We have also launched, in the last few Antiquity (me), Poles and Jews in Poland months, a major review of our degree
Let’s get straight down to business. I am glad to report that the Department has been very busy, for a change, and on several fronts. First of all, it is a great relief that we have finally completed our submission for REF2014. For those who don’t know, REF stands for Research Excellence Framework (I know, what a ridiculous name); it is an exercise that must be carried out every six years by all Higher Education institutions, to assess their performance in the area of research. We need to submit samples of our publications (books, articles, etc.) as well as a set of extended statements demonstrating the quality of our research and ‘research environment’, the achievements of our staff and research (PhD) students, and most challengingly, the ‘impact’ of our research on wider society. Our REF2014 submission includes very impressive work. We have brought out books on ancient Babylonian medicine (Mark Geller), rabbis, language, and translation (Willem Smelik), calendars in Antiquity (me), Poles and Jews in Poland after 1800 (François Guesnet), the Hebrew of late Enlightenment writers (Lily Kahn), Jewish DPs in post-War Germany (Michael Berkowitz), and Lisbon in World War II (Neill Lochery). This range of titles and subjects reflects, on its own, the richness and variety of our research activities. This said, we should not lose sight of the fact that the REF is a politically driven exercise, of which the main purpose is to commercialize research and get us to do what the Government thinks the taxpayer wants. The whole operation of the REF costs a huge amount of public money. Besides the central REF apparatus itself, UCL – like all other Higher Education institutions – have been funding an entire department just to handle its REF submission. The REF also costs a huge amount of our own time and work. It has taken about three years (I am not exaggerating) to plan our submission, compile all the materials and the evidence, and draft the necessary documents. It has been hugely important to get this right, as the Department’s funding for the next six years will largely depend on the results of this assessment; but I am sure we will do very well. We have also launched, in the last few months, a major review of our degree