The UUK and the universities are spot-on in their criticism of the replacement of
the old panel RAE by *one metric* (prior research funding). That would be
*absurd* and extremely unfair, counterproductive and arbitrary.
But that has next to nothing to do with replacing the RAE's tremendously
wasteful panel-based exercise by *metricS* (plural), which include a
rich array of objective performance indicators rather than just one
self-fulfilling prophecy (prior funding).
UUK and the universities are also quite right that the metrics need to be
tested and validated, field by field (some already have been), and that the
metric formula and the weights for each of the metrics have to be adjusted
to each discipline. Whether, and if so how much, panel review will still
be needed in some disciplines once the metric formula has been tested
and optimised is an empirical question (but my own guess is: not much).