Challenges for National Political Science Associations: The Political Studies Association of the UK
- PDF / 78,924 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 535.748 x 697.323 pts Page_size
- 82 Downloads / 231 Views
Abstract National political science associations in Europe face several important challenges. The growth of politics as a discipline means that they have become expanding organisations, attempting to cope with ever-larger memberships and remits. This article examines the particular challenges confronting the Political Studies Association of the UK, as it attempts to represent its members’ interests. The particular challenges for the Association identified in this article are protection of research, amid concentration of funding, curriculum convergence via the Bologna process and the creation of horizontal links across Europe with other political science associations.
Keywords
political science; Bologna; benchmarking
N
ational political science associations face a number of difficult challenges. Such associations need to prove their value and recruit academics. They need to represent their membership, within which there may be many different views. They need to promote the needs of politics academics to government bodies, not all of which may be receptive. National political science associations also need to recruit talented and articulate members to their executive
230
committees, in an era when the alternative demands upon academics have never been greater. Founded in 1949, with its inaugural meeting held in 1950, the Political Studies Association (PSA) of the United Kingdom attempts to represent the interests of Politics academics. As one of the largest national political science associations in the world, with over 1,600 members and three full-time office staff, the PSA attempts to provide academic services
european political science: 7 2008 (230 – 236) & 2008 European Consortium for Political Research. 1680-4333/08 $30 www.palgrave-journals.com/eps
for its members, such as publication of four journals, including the flagship Political Studies; funding for over thirty specialist research groups, including some major research ‘players’, such as the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, Women and Politics and Labour Movements groups; and organisation of an annual conference, awards ceremony and heads of departments conference. The PSA also attempts to articulate the interests of its members on research and teaching issues to a range of government bodies and to universities themselves. The longevity, size and financial resources of the PSA provide considerable strengths in this respect. The constantly changing Higher Education environment, hierarchy of the university sector and concentration of research funding all provide substantial challenges for the PSA, as does the need to Europeanise and internationalise its links and outlook.
RESEARCH ASSESSMENT AND FUNDING The UK’s Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) produces many challenges for the PSA. It is essentially a rationing exercise in terms of the allocation of research funding by the Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce) to departments. Introduced fully in 1992, after earlier limited exercises, the RAE grades departments on their research quality, u
Data Loading...
