ov I t’s NS St N ID ra ew E: te gy S ci , p enc 2 e
G
Research Active The Newsletter of University of Kent Research Services, Vol 9, Issue 2, Feb 2015
THE OUTCOME OF THE REF After five years of preparations and an anxious final year of waiting, the REF2014 results were released on 18 December 2014. The VC and PVC presented them to an open meeting of all staff in Woolf on the same day. ‘This is an excellent result for the University, and I would like to thank all of you for the part you played in securing it,’ said Prof Dame Julia Goodfellow. Kent’s submission had been inclusive, and the University had included 85% of eligible staff in the exercise, the 13th highest proportion submitted by any university. This, together with a 40% increase in overall academic staff since 2008, meant that it performed particularly well in the ‘power’ (which factored in the total number of ‘full time equivalent’ (FTE) staff), and the ‘intensity’ (percentage of eligible staff submitted) tables. 97% of Kent’s research was of international quality (2*+), up from 87% in 2008. 73% of its research is 3*, up from 55% in 2008. This placed it 17th in the UK for research intensity amongst comparable multi-unit universities, and it outperformed 11 of the 24 Russell Group universities. (see table, right). Similarly, Kent’s score for research power increased by 59%, the third largest increase of the top 50 research-intensive universities. For further commentary, go to p10
Top 30 Universities for Research Intensity 1
University of Cambridge
Units Submitted 32
2
Imperial College London
14
3
University College London
36
4
University of Bristol
31
4
University of Oxford
31
6
London School of Economics and Political Science
14
7
Queen’s University Belfast
28
7
University of Southampton
26
9
University of the Highlands and Islands
6
10
University of Warwick
23
11
University of Edinburgh
31
12
Loughborough University
18
13
University of Glasgow
32
14
University of St Andrews
20
15
King’s College London
27
16
University of Strathclyde
17
17
University of Exeter
25
17
University of Kent
23
17
University of Reading
23
20
University of Essex
14
21
University of Birmingham
33
22
Durham University
23
23
Goldsmiths, University of London
13
24
Newcastle University
28
24
University of Manchester
35
26
University of Nottingham
32
27
Lancaster University
16
28
Birkbeck, University of London
14
29
Royal Holloway, University of London
17
30
University of York
24
Rank
Institution
1