THE INVENTION OF EVALUATION SYSTEMS AND SELF-DEFINITIONS IN THE EVALUATION OF RESEARCH AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN FRANCE AND THE NETHERLANDS SINCE THE 1980S

International Conference on Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (RESSH)

Rennes, 4-6 June 2015

Aline Waltzing, PhD Student Centre Alexandre Koyré History of Science and Technology EHESS, Paris

Contents •  Two Big Questions: origins and purposes

• Permanencies and shifts

•  Two Evaluation Systems

• Question 1: Discourses on origins

• Question 2: Discourses on purposes

• Part of larger patterns

•  The place given to RESSH

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TWO BIG QUESTIONS

ORIGINS and PURPOSES of evaluation

3

PERMANENCIES AND SHIFTS

Setting the timeframe for a historical perspective

4

Two evaluation systems

France

• CNÉ (Comité National d’Évaluation)

Netherlands

Dutch Evaluation Protocols, by • KNAW (Royal

Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)

•  NWO (Organisation for Scientific Research)

• VSNU (Association of Dutch Universities)

5

QUESTION 1 Discourses on origins

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Discourses on origins France

CNÉ

missions

bureaucracy

dysfunction

Netherlands

Evaluation Protocols

freedom

flexibility

OECD countries

social demand, dissatis-faction crisis

accountability

conditional

funding societal priorities

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QUESTION 2 Discourses on purposes

8

Discourses on purposes France Netherlands

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mainly for the use of

universities

improvement

autonomy, responsibility knowing

oneself, being

accountable

mainly for the use of

universities

improvement

autonomy and quality assurance accountability,

useful to society

Avoid over regulation

democratise

self management, missions, strategies, negotiation for budget, reorganisation

EVALUATION AS PART OF LARGER PATTERNS

10

THE PLACE GIVEN TO RESSH CNÉ, 1980s

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CONCLUSIONS AND OUTLOOK

Thank you very much for your attention

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Two different systems

France

• Design, organisation, issue of the report: CNÉ

• Visit, drafting of report: external experts

Netherlands

• Design: KNAW, NWO and VSNU

• Organisation: VSNU, since 2003 the universities themselves

• Visit, drafting of report: external experts

•  Issue of the report: VSNU, since 2003 the universities themselves

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