‘Mother of ERA’ set to pull plug on research assessment exercise

The sector in Australia has always opposed the ERA, or its equivalent. Yes, it may be onerous, but I suspect that the real reason is that the sector just doesn't like being evaluated from outside like this. And of course it can be simplified if the issue is its expense and complexity, but I suspect that this would not satisfy the critics. From my perception of the impact of PBRF in New Zealand tertiary institutions, its introduction had a galvanising effect. Everybody just got that much more serious and professional about their research work. One key aspect of the NZ system is that it required academics to submit their best four research outputs, so the emphasis was certainly on quality not quantity. I would be interested in the stats - is Australia going to consider them? - but my impression is that both the quality and the quantity of research outputs have improved measurably.