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One Response to “Universities Driven to Competitive Malaise - NZ Herald”
PBRF - performance based research fund - is poorly suited to an architecture school. Im not an expert on PBRF but i know Its a funding system designed to get lecturers/tutors continuing research etc etc upon which the funding is allocated.
In architecture - we are have high resource requirements. We require 24/7 access to studios with drawing boards, computing gear and expensive software (that we can not afford to personally run on personal computers). We require a workshop and modeling tools (such as laser cutter). PBRF does not acknowledge that some schools will require a greater fund to maintain these types of resources than other schools which dont require half as much.
Also - architecture lecturers/tutors do not give 1 hr lectures. They need to spend entire days in studio classes. They have less time to conduct their research.
Similarly - architecture has a heavy involvement with the profession. Many of our tutors are practitioners who are not carrying out research for the university. Therefore the staff that are lecturers at architecture school have a much greater load in terms of research to compensate for these practitioners teaching in our school.
October 4th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Alan Cocker is right on the mark !
PBRF - performance based research fund - is poorly suited to an architecture school. Im not an expert on PBRF but i know Its a funding system designed to get lecturers/tutors continuing research etc etc upon which the funding is allocated.
In architecture - we are have high resource requirements. We require 24/7 access to studios with drawing boards, computing gear and expensive software (that we can not afford to personally run on personal computers). We require a workshop and modeling tools (such as laser cutter). PBRF does not acknowledge that some schools will require a greater fund to maintain these types of resources than other schools which dont require half as much.
Also - architecture lecturers/tutors do not give 1 hr lectures. They need to spend entire days in studio classes. They have less time to conduct their research.
Similarly - architecture has a heavy involvement with the profession. Many of our tutors are practitioners who are not carrying out research for the university. Therefore the staff that are lecturers at architecture school have a much greater load in terms of research to compensate for these practitioners teaching in our school.
PBRF is against us in most ways.