Endorsement from Professor James Wilsdon, University of Sheffield
What impresses me most about Jo’s manifesto is the coherent diagnosis it offers of the acute challenges confronting further and higher education, and its holistic strategy for tackling them. As someone who has campaigned on the need for more responsible uses of metrics and rankings in our sector (as the former chair of the independent government review that led to The Metric Tide report), I was particularly pleased to see Jo’s commitment to addressing this issue. As we say in that review, metrics hold real power: they are constitutive of values, identities and livelihoods. But poorly-designed and crudely-imposed metrics are now a growing problem in our universities and across the UK education system as a whole. Anyone with the energy and clarity of vision to resist the tide of irresponsible metrics that swirls around us would win my vote. So I’m pleased to be supporting #Grady4GS.
James Wilsdon, Professor of Research Policy, University of Sheffield. Chair, Campaign for Social Science. Former Chair, Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management.
Jo Grady for UCU General Secretary