„ Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2003, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Interpreting the Process of Change in Higher Education: The Case of the Research Assessment Exercises Ted Tapper, University of Sussex, and Brian Salter, University of East Anglia Abstract Given that the current Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2001) has been completed, it is an appropriate time to explore the impact of the RAEs upon the character of British higher education. This timeliness is reinforced by the earlier publication of HEFCE’s own ‘Review of Research’ (September 2000), the report from the House of Commons’ Select Committee on Science and Technology Committee (April 2000), with a report due in April 2003 from the Joint Funding Bodies (under the auspices of Gareth Roberts).We are there- fore in a period of review and consultation, which may culminate in a new assessment regime or, as its severest critics would hope, even its demise. While our analysis genuflects to these contemporary developments, it is constructed within a framework that interprets the RAE process as constituting a con- tinuous struggle for the control of the production of high-status knowledge. Introduction An analysis of the Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs) can take dif- ferent directions. For example, it is possible to focus upon what is to count as research, and if there are different kinds of research, what is their relative value? Alternatively, the mechanics of the process are not without interest: who becomes a member of an assessment panel, how such individuals are appointed, the means by which the panels reach their decisions and how and why the rules have changed over time. Or the RAE can be analysed in terms of its alleged purposes: as a means to Higher Education Quarterly, 0951–5224 Volume 57, No. 1, January 2003, pp 4–23