Visvalingam, M (1988) "Time for research", Area 20 (3), 209 - 210.   Invited guest editorial

Untenured research workers began to note the implications of changes in the style of funding and the decline in academic and academic-
related employment more than ten years ago. Yet the custodians of our profession, fully committed to ongoing programmes of teaching and
research and to a large extent cushioned in security of tenure, have only recently begun to address the problems of change, largely as a
result of government pressure.

The existing framework for research dates from the responsive era in research funding. This encouraged the continued development
of peer-reviewed expertise by lecturing staff, who relied upon grants and awards to explore and extend the frontiers of
knowledge with the help of apprentices. Such personal research is now viewed increasingly as a luxury which, though not as esoteric
as the study of Sanscrit, has less and less claim on the public purse.

Instead, there has been a progressive shift towards directed research, with an ever increasing reliance on contracts from
industry and government agencies. Sadly, academic institutions, pre-occupied with cut-backs in UGC funding, have not fully
recognised the need to provide clear guidance to staff through constructive internal policies, which could establish a new and
healthy ecosystem for research.

Without adequate guidance, many individuals have no doubt made their own disparate adjustments. The diminished prospects of promotion
and the push towards early retirement and voluntary severance has made some acknowledge publicly that research was never their
vocation. Those 'obsessed' with intellectual pursuits in a morale-killing climate tend to be regarded as medal-seekers or some kind of
perverts. Despite this stigma, those committed to personal research and teaching, especially of topics which require minimal support,
beaver on even after 'retirement'.

Others requiring support, especially for team effort, have quickly encountered the demands imposed by changing trends. Directed
research, especially that sponsored by industry, often rejects current expertise as inadequate or irrelevant and expects the
cultivation of new expertise. Full time lecturers do not have the time to sell their ideas and acquire the required expertise to
supervise long-term programmes of research. The task of supervision and of report writing has become more onerous in some disciplines
than in others.

In scientific subjects, expertise once established is undermined only by a paradigm shift. Natural laws, theories and processes are
more durable. However, we live in a period of rapid technological, social and economic change with profound implications for many
aspects of Geography.

Within this scenario, some academic and academic related service staff are perhaps neglecting contractual responsibilities to
concentrate instead on income generation with or without formal consent. Income generation, rather than traditional peer-reviewed
academic contribution, is now seen as the prime requirement for promotion and indeed for survival of departments. This in part has
led to over-protection of knowledge, to publication of advertising trivia rather than substantive contributions that others can use
(thereby often mis-directing and confusing the uncritical) and in general to a suffocation of keen competitive research in the new
lucrative disciplines.

Institutions are perhaps turning a blind-eye to the misuse of institutional facilities for private low-level services; occasional
overheads and current government policy ensure informal consent. Yet Independent Research Workers (IRW), seeking to further develop
and contribute expertise at their own expense, are often denied minimal facilities which could be met at marginal cost. I am
therefore grateful to many Heads within the University of Hull for generously encouraging and supporting my research aspirations and
efforts over a period of six years, initially informally and later through the provision of an Honorary Research appointment.

Managerial skills and external resources are no longer enough and quality research, of the type that will continue to attract funding
and increase knowledge, can only be achieved by directing more time to own and supervised training and research. This can detract
attention away from non-specialist teaching for several years while new expertise is developed in sometimes completely new directions.
Some dedicated academics have already provided us with models of how research may be successfully managed to take full advantage of old and new talent. With their reputation and with the support of enlightened departmental heads, they have secured consent and funds
for replacement staff so that they themselves can concentrate on laying the foundations for new programmes of research. This also
provides others, who would otherwise not have the opportunity, to develop teaching and research skills. Unilateral adjustments in the
internal regulations of autonomous institutions could have promoted such symbiosis and injected fresh vitality into British research.

Instead, radical change in academic structure is now being forced by external agencies and monetary stringencies. The proposal of a
three-tier system of research, research and teaching and teaching only institutions, which could have made tenured academics in the
latter into IRW, has been shelved. Following the review of teaching and research in the Earth Sciences, the UGC has accepted the
classification of institutions into 4 types, of which only the M (mainstream) and I (interdisciplinary) types within Group 1 will be
well provided with equipment for research. However, special provisions are sought for high flyers in other types of institutions
through "adjunct appointments", carrying special privileges, in these elite Group 1 institutions. The latter have been asked to
consider the scope for such provisions under their current regulations. If this necessitates a review of regulations, I would
urge the senior members of our profession in positions of influence to use this opportunity to promote discussion of the potential role
and value of independent research to academic 'enterprise in Britain' and make some modest provisions for stimulating and
supporting it within their institutions.

© Mahes Visvalingam, 1988

Original manuscript - September 1986
Revised manuscript - March 1988

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