By Terry Hébert, Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Thought-provoking commentary on the use of metrics to evaluate academics. The most striking thing to me was how ultimately damaging they can be when (as they are now) they are used to run universities the way businesses are run. Who benefits from this? Students- no. Academics- no. Universities- no. Society- no. Both articles conclude that universities don’t need managers- they need leaders.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2013/aug/16/science-policy?CMP=twt_fd
http://www.nature.com/news/halt-the-avalanche-of-performance-metrics-1.13553
I m a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University.