Philosophy Now

1
Philosophy Now

• Tom Sorell
• University of Birmingham
• British Philosophical Association

2
Outline

• Old career progression
• New career progression
• The importance of the RAE
• After the RAE
• Quality Assessment and audit
• Internationalization
• The recognition of the profession the BPA

3
Old career progression

• First Class Honours Degree
• Graduate Study
• Temporary Teaching jobs, RFs
• Lectureship in an old university
• Promotion bottlenecks (SL)
• Chairs
• Retirement

4
New Career Progression

• Old career progression with changes
• New universities v Old universities
• Multidisciplinarity
• Joint appointments
• Project RFs and Dedicated RFs
• Teaching-only and Research posts
• Publications and first jobs
• Specialization
• Careers outside HE

5
Differences between old and new career progression

• Teaching declining in importance
• Undergraduate
• PGT
• PGR
• Research increasing in importance
• Administration increasingly audit as opposed to
  innovative governance
• Audit and consumerism
• Audit and social engineering targets

6
The importance of the RAE

• As a source of income to universities
• Rankings in RAE as a source of hierarchy among
  university departments

7
What is the RAE

• http//www.rae.ac.uk/aboutus/history.asp
• Peer- assessment of research outputs over a
  seven-year cycle
• 4 point scale
• Research environment
• Esteem

8
After the 2008 RAE

• Bibliometrics
• Funding metrics
• Reform of the AHRC
• Cross Research Council calls

9
Quality Assessment and Audit

• http//www.qaa.ac.uk/aboutus/default.asp
• http//www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/reports/subjectlevel/
  qo11_01_textonly.htm
• Use of QAA scores in
• Direct recruitment to UG courses
• Newspaper league tables

10
Internationalization

• The English-speaking world and philosophy
• Friends of the English-speaking world
  Scandinavia and Netherlands
• International Job mobility in E-s world
• Bologna process
• Soros-supported programmes

11
The recognition of the profession

• Learned societies in philosophy
• Aristotelian Society
• Mind Association
• Royal Institute of Philosophy
• Society for Applied Philosophy
• NCP BPA
• BPA and other PAs