Artistic Outputs, Arts Research and the Rating of the Theatre Practitioner as Researcher—Some responses to the NRF rating system after the first three years

Abstract

In 2002 the National Research Foundation (NRF), the state funding agency for research at tertiary institutions in South Africa, daringly extended its successful rating system for the natural sciences (introduced in the mid-1980s), to the social sciences and humanities. The aim is to recognise and advance the quality and amount of research undertaken by universities and other tertiary institutions in South Africa. The principle is simple, based on a national and international benchmarking system, focused on the achievements of the individual researcher and a rating of such researchers. The system utilises a peer-review system (and a complex set of review and appeal processes) to categorise researchers into one of seven broad categories (with internal sub-divisions in some cases), based primarily on the output of the previous seven years. The broad categories are indicated briefly in the Table below. (The more detailed breakdown into sub-categories as well as the specifics of the process of assessment itself can be found on the NRF website at http://www.nrf.ac.za).