Congratulations to staff on a stellar performance in REF 2014
18 December 2014
UCL's leads the UK on the measure of research strength in the Research Excellence Framework (REF2014), a "groundbreaking achievement", according to UCL President & Provost, Professor Michael Arthur.
"These results represent an historic change," said Professor Arthur. "The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are no longer the dominant research powers in this country."
UCL's REF performance demonstrates strengths across the academic spectrum. Universities' research submissions were judged under four main panels, A, B, C, and D, each of which included research from several different UCL faculties. Based on a calculation using GPA (grade point average) x FTE (full time equivalent staff), UCL was ranked top in panels A (focused on biomedicine) and C (focused on social sciences) and fifth in panels B and D.
In contrast to previous research assessment exercises, REF2014 incorporates a 20% weighting for research impact. UCL's Impact performance was outstanding - judged again on the GPA x FTE measure, UCL is the most impactful UK institution. What is more, UCL has garnered the highest scores in the UK for research environment.
"I would like to offer my huge congratulations to the academic staff of this great institution for this exceptional performance," said Professor Arthur.
Reflecting on the huge body of work that had brought the REF2014 submission together, he added: "We couldn't have achieved these results without the hard work of the Unit of Assessment leads. And the Environment and Impact results reflect an enormous input from central professional services teams."
"In particular, I would like to recognise the spectacularly good job done by the central REF team, led by Vice-Provost (Research) Professor David Price, Director of Research Evaluation Andrew Cooper and Director of Research Planning Dr Andrew Clark."
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For more information about UCL's REF performance, see the links below: