Assessment bias in the 2014 UK Research Excellence Framework: evidence from economics and business management

The standing of universities is increasingly tied to assessments of their research prowess. Research assessment exercises have the potential to provide participants in Higher Education (HE) systems with objective assessments of research quality. However, if the evaluations of research quality produced by research assessment exercises are biased, this may undermine their contribution to a more efficient allocation of scarce resources, both within and between universities. If the bias takes the form of some Units of Assessment (UOA) receiving unjustifiably favourable assessments, submissions to these UOAs may be viewed more favourably by university managers when it comes to deciding where to put their scarce research funding. As well as distorting the internal allocation of resources, a research assessment process which lacks objectivity may alter a university’s reputational capital, which in turn may affect its ability to attract and retain students and staff. This paper provides fresh evidence based on decomposition techniques on the merits of claims of bias in research assessment exercises using data on submissions to the Business and Management Studies (BMS) and Economics and Econometrics (E&E) UOAs at the 2014 REF