Forget impact factors, h-indexes and other sophisticated formulae used to gauge academic output. Evaluating faculty at Texas A&M University could soon be as simple as balancing a cheque book.

According to the Bryan-College Station Eagle, administrators at the 11-university system are pushing for a programme that assigns a simple net value to each faculty member – how much money they bring in from teaching and research, less their salary. The plan is headed to the university’s board of regents for approval.

Some A&M faculty are none too happy about having a dollar figure slapped on their backs. “As being partly paid by the public purse, I believe we owe the public some degree of accountability – I don’t have a problem with that at all," Peter Hugill, geography professor and local president of the American Association of University Professors, tells the Eagle. “What I have a problem with is silly measures.”

Other faculty members complain that the assessment doesn’t account for the value of teaching and mentoring that happens outside the classroom. Cargill also says that the approach is inspired by a plan promoted by a right-wing think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, with ties to the state’s Republican governor.

“Whether the idea is coming from this group, or it’s coming from whoever, once again, the money is coming from taxpayers,” Frank Ashley, the university’s vice chancellor for academic affairs who is spear-heading the plan tells the Eagle. Moreover, he thinks the system will demonstrate to taxpayers that faculty members are pulling their weight – at least most of them. “There might be one or two departments that are running in the red. Overall, we’re operating in the black.”