Should Katie Hopkins be burnt at the stake? (page 16)
indigo interviews the Ting Tings (page i6)
Durham’s independent student newspaper
Palatinate
No. 769
www.palatinate.org.uk
8
Thursday 22nd January 2015| FREE
Profile: Labour activist Harry Leslie Smith
Durham Cathedral looked stunning following a light snowfall last Tuesday evening.
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18
Profile: Former Tory minister Edwina Currie
Sport: Sport interviews BBC legend Gabby Logan
Photograph: Isabel López Ruiz
Durham falls six places in research rankings James Poole Josh Smith Durham University has dropped to 20th in the latest research excellence framework (REF) results, which were published over the winter break. The rankings, which are formulated by the weekly newspaper Times Higher Education, saw Durham place behind the universities of York, Warwick and Sheffield, despite beating all three in the world rankings earlier this year. The Times Higher Education also published subject rankings for UK universities. Durham
placed 32nd for Biological Sciences, behind the Universities of Reading and Southampton, and placed joint 34th for Psychology, behind the Universities of Dundee and Sussex. However, Durham’s Department of Theology placed 1st in the rankings, ahead of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, whilst Durham’s Law school ranked 3rd, also ahead of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In response to the rankings, Professor Claire Warwick, ProVice-Chancellor for Research, told Palatinate: “There is world leading research across the full spectrum of
subjects in each of our Faculties. However, it is difficult to compare our overall performance with that of others because we have a different mixture of subjects from many of our competitor universities. “For example, we do not have a medical school, which is significant because medical research attracts very large amounts of funding. “There are several ways of reading the REF results, depending on the metrics one chooses, and as a result interpreting the results is not straightforward. For example, overall rankings look different when weighted by percentage of staff entered.
“We will continue to deepen our analysis of the outcomes - this will be one element of our ongoing review of research strategy.” Overall, the Times Higher Education claims that the quality of UK research has increased since the last REF results in 2008 22% of UK research was judged to be of world-leading standard. The Institute of Cancer Research maintained pole position on the rankings after placing first in 2008. Cambridge University dropped in the rankings, falling from second to fifth, whilst Cardiff University climbed from joint 22nd to sixth.