| 3 £1.5m for universe study | 6 Profile: Professor Frank Nestle | 7 King’s new global partners | 14 Students launch new charity
Comment The College newsletter
Issue no 186 | February 2009
King’s world-class research After a long wait and much hard work, the 2008 RAE results have finally been published. Vice-Principal Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman examines its implications. THE RESULTS OF THE 2008 RESEARCH
Assessment Exercise (RAE) were officially released by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in December, confirming King’s position as one of the leading British universities for research. In total, King’s entered 1,220 Category A staff (1,172 FTE) to 35 different units of assessment
at the end of November 2007. Information consisted of: publications of staff; numbers of research students and studentships; information on research income; and a strategy document. This information was then reviewed by panels of expert peers, including international experts. Since the last RAE in 2001 there have been significant changes
to the way in which entries are assessed. Single summative ratings for each discipline have been replaced by ‘quality profiles’ of research activity. These show in finer details the quality of research activity within departments, revealing pockets of excellence wherever they may be. The profiles now show the percentage of research activity in
Building international relations NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
each department judged to fall within each of four quality grades ‘in terms of originality, significance and rigour’. The grades are: • Four* – world-leading • Three* – internationally excellent … but which nonetheless falls short of the highest standards of excellence • Two* – recognised internationally • One* – recognised nationally • Unclassified – research that falls below the standard of nationally recognised work or does not meet the RAE’s published definition of research.
Examining the implications
Rag and Flag event at the National University of Singapore (NUS), organised by the Students’ Union to raise money for charity. NUS is one of the College’s new international collaborations, read more in a special feature on page 7.
Along with all other British universities the College eagerly awaited the results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. This had been the focus for so much activity at all levels of the College for many years. When the results came it soon became evident that the College had done well – and the more the figures were studied the better it looked. The figures, however, took some interpreting. Contrary to what the guidelines might have led us to expect, the panels marked generously. If the definitions of world-class and internationally excellent are taken seriously then we might conclude that if marking was on the same scale as 2001, from 55 per cent of continued on page 2