Professor Backhouse's article in the HOPE 2002 Supplement does indicate
that the unofficial RAE-economics panel view of HET/HE is not a
favorable one. However, in terms of an explicit statement, I do not
believe that in the previous four RAE exercises that the topics/content
of the submissions has been prescribed in this sort of detail. It is
this explicit institutional change that prompted my query.
There are of course a number of issues that arise concerning the
explicit change. The one that may be of interest to many is the History
of Economics Society position on the panel-placement of HET/HE in the
2008 RAE. That is on 15 July 2004 Dr. Diana Jones (Acting RAE Deputy
Manager) sent a letter to the History of Economics Society asking it to
nominate person(s) for the RAE panels and sub-panels--see
http://www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2004/03/. Whether the HES responded to the
letter, what names(s) the HES may have submitted, and to which panels
and/or sub-panels the name(s) were submitted may be of interest to
members of HES.
Fred Lee