§ Lord McCarthyasked Her Majesty's Government:
How the Universities Funding Council arrived at their ranking of British universities for the purpose of receiving future research grants, with particular reference to the principles used to make assessments of past and present research, the methodology employed to apply these principles 773WA and its claim to objectivity, and the individuals employed to make assessments and their qualifications.
§ Viscount DavidsonSuch assessments are wholly within the competence of the Universities Funding Council established under the Education Reform Act 1988. The details of the approach were explained in the council's Circular Letter 27/89, and in Circular Letters 15/88, 45/88 and 52/88 issued by the predecessor University Grants Committee. Copies of these letters have been placed in the Library.