Assetisation as a means to solve public problems: the research excellence framework and competitive future-making

In this paper, we engage with the Research Excellence Framework (REF) – the UK government’s national policy tool for competitive allocation of scarce research funding. Success on the terms of the REF provides guaranteed income for UK Universities for a 6- or 7-year period – and as a result, we suggest that the REF operates as an asset-like structure. We utilise 3 examples to build a comparative analysis of ways in which the REF is becoming organised in asset-like ways, the mechanisms involved in monetising future REF income in the present and the consequences that follow from this activity. In making projections that bring future income into the present, we suggest much is at stake. We will use the paper to argue that as a result of these practices assetization is now becoming a key means of steering University governance.