Registry and Academic Services contact for initial enquiries - Andrew Cooper
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the new exercise developed by the four UK higher education funding bodies (HEFCs) to assess the quality of UK research and to inform the selective distribution of public funds for research (known as ‘QR’) by the HEFCs. The first REF, which has replaced the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), will take place in 2013-14. Submissions to REF will be made by higher education institutions in November 2013 but the exercise has been designated by the HEFCs ‘REF 2014’ – the year in which the assessment process will actually take place and the results will be announced. Detailed information about the development of REF is available on the Higher Education Funding Council for England website. The HEFCs’ provisional timetable for REF 2014 is here. REF 2014 will be the seventh exercise of its kind since a national research assessment process was initiated in the mid-1980s. The first two assessments, in 1986 and 1989, were known as the ‘Research Selectivity Exercise’. The process was renamed as RAE for the third assessment in 1992 and that name was retained (although the RAE methodology continued to evolve) for the next three exercises – RAE 1996, RAE 2001 and RAE 2008.
The REF will, like the RAE, provides quality ratings for
research across all disciplines - ratings which are calculated by peer
assessment panels according to how much of the work submitted for
assessment is judged to reach international levels of excellence. UCL’s
performance in RAE was consistently excellent and confirmed its standing
as among the top multi-faculty universities in the UK. The REF outcomes
will therefore be crucially important to UCL in providing funding to
maintain its internationally excellent research activity. UCL's RAE 2008
results are available here and the
full results for the UK higher education sector are here.
Strategic planning for the REF is led by UCL’s Vice-Provost (Research), Professor David Price, and his REF strategy group. Registry and Academic Services (RAS) is responsible for supporting the Vice-Provost (Research) in this key area of UCL operations - co-ordinating the planning and preparation of UCL's REF submissions and the management of REF data collection processes. The REF 2014 team is led by the REF Manager, Andrew Cooper, based in the office of the Director of RAS.
Further details about the planning process will be made available in the coming months from the internal UCL REF site (password required). In the meantime, any questions about REF 2014 should be addressed to uclref@ucl.ac.uk.
Page last modified on 23 may 12 10:18
