REF 2021 and impact

REF 2021 is the second assessment carried out under the Research Excellence Framework (REF), with the first one issued in 2014. 

We are delighted with our faculty’s overall trend of improvement in all aspects of our REF submission, and that UCL’s Main Panel D, including departments in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, was ranked 6th in the UK in terms of Research Power. 

Key highlights

• 85.1% of our research was graded 4* and 3* (up from 69.08% in 2014) – and our overall research GPA rose to 3.32.
• 57.1% of our Impact Case Studies scored 4*, compared to 49.1% in the previous REF.
• 49.3% of our Environment Statements achieved 4*, 12.2% more than in 2014.
• 38.9% of our Outputs gained 4*, compared to 29.2% in REF 2014.

Departmental highlights

• Philosophy – 1st in the UK for 4* rating of research and for Research Impact; one of two Units of Assessment across UCL that achieved 100% 4* for Impact.
• School of European Languages, Culture & Society – 6th in the UK and 1st in London for Research Power.
• Greek & Latin – 2nd in UK and 1st in London for 3*/4* rating of research.
• Hebrew & Jewish Studies – 5th in the UK with 88.5% of Outputs graded 3*/4* rating.
• English – 6th in the UK with 96% of their submission graded as 3*/4*.
• Slade School of Fine Art – 8th in the UK on 3*/4* Outputs.
• Information Studies – Impact GPA increase from 3.10 in 2014 to 3.75 in 2021 (read more about the Memory, Identity, Rights in Records, Access research project below).

Arts & Humanities Impact Case Study highlight: Transforming access to children’s social care records

Social care records are a vital resource for memory-making and identity for adults who were in care as children. 

The Memory, Identity, Rights in Records, Access (MIRRA) project (2017–2019) worked with care experienced adults in England to understand their experiences of accessing their care records. MIRRA identified deficits in recordkeeping practice for looked-after children and ways in which information and data legislation could be better operated. 

The MIRRA project improved child social care recording practice in England, and care-experienced people’s access to records by:

• producing practical guidance for care leavers to access their records enabling them to exercise their information rights better
• changing policy makers’ understandings of the implementation of the Data Protection Act on looked-after children’s information rights
• improving records management and child social care recording through the provision of new Principles for Caring Recordkeeping

Read the full case study about the project.

Professor Elizabeth Shepherd, the MIRRA project’s Principal Investigator, talks about her research in the following video.

Find out more about our research excellence in our REF 2021 Impact Case Studies

• Classical Antiquity in Cinema: Curation, restoration & exhibition, performance, appreciation and curriculum development
• Facilitating Cultural Production and Enhancing Public Understanding through the Works of Henry James
• Hands On Art Workshops: establishing a visual art education programme for primary and secondary school students in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya
• Improving conditions for subtitlers and increasing Netflix’s subtitled content
• Palestinian Statelessness: Reshaping Policy, Public Debate, and Creating New Open-Access Resources
• Public Policy on Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe: The Global Impact of Russian ‘Active Measures’
• Shaping NHS policy on confidential patient data through ethics advice