Morning:
8°c
London universities are leading the nation in research excellence
Benedict Moore-Bridger18 Dec 2008
LONDON universities dominate a new league table of the top educational establishments for research which was published today.
The London School of Economics, Imperial College, University College London and King's College London all feature in the top 20 behind Cambridge and Oxford.
More than half of research conducted by the UK's academics was either "world leading" or "internationally excellent".
The results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise will decide how £1.5 billion of funding is spent in England, and sees every university submit a dossier of its best researchers' work in 67 disciplines, in which they are graded and ranked.
Oxford University loses out to Cambridge in terms of research in a table based on grade-point averages, which gives Cambridge a GPA of 2.975, compared to Oxford at 2.959. Both submitted research to the RAE in 50 subjects. LSE is third with 2.957, Imperial fourth with 2.943, and UCL fifth with 2.844. King's College comes 20th with 2.693.
In total 159 universities and colleges submitted more than 200,000 pieces of work, which were reviewed by experts in their field.
They graded the work, from "world leading" to "nationally recognised". The results will be used to allocate funding of £1.5 billion to universities each year from 2009-10. Professor David Eastwood, chief executive of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), said 24 of the institutions had at least 40 per cent of all of their submissions rated as "world leading". He said: "This represents an outstanding achievement, confirming that the UK is among the top rank of research powers in the world."
Concerns have been raised that the results do not include the percentage of staff submitted by each institution. A mistake by HEFCE omitted this information from the assessment.
This meant that there was the potential for institutions to be selective about the numbers of academics they submitted in order to raise their standing.
Higher proportions of "world leading" research would mean more funding, but they would also lose out on funding because they had submitted work from fewer academics.
David Price, research vice provost at University College London (UCL), which was in the top 10 according to the analysis, said: "I think we do so well because we have so many world-class researchers."
According to an analysis of the data, Queen Mary, University of London has soared up the table since the last RAE was conducted.
A spokeswoman said: "Queen Mary is delighted to have its position as one of the country's top research-led institutions confirmed by the RAE results. This outstanding performance has been achieved by imaginative and careful investment in world-leading staff in our various subject areas - sustained over the past few years."
Professor Rick Trainor, president of Universities UK, said: "Excellent research has wide-ranging impact and drives innovation in the public and private sectors. It is now critical, more than ever, to the economic strength of the UK. If we are to sustain our position and continue to reap the benefits we must maintain the political commitment and investment in research that has been seen over the last 10 years."
Reader views (5)
Why has the author of this article failed to name Queen Mary College in her first paragraph? QMUL out performed KCL in the ratings, and was placed just outside the top 10.
Ceep, you mention that London is hardly 'dominating'. Well, you have misinterpreted the article because the author has wrongly stated that 'London universities dominate', when it should read the 'University of London' (and its constituent colleges) dominate.
Some other London universities performed terribly!
- Joanne, London, 20/12/2008 19:03
Report abuse
Actually the article misrepresents London's domination. In fact when you count in the performance of small specialist institutions such as the RCA, LBS, Courtauld, Institure for Cancer Research, LSHTM etc. we can proudly boast as a city of being the leading centre of research excellence in the world!
- Anthony, London, 20/12/2008 15:07
Report abuse
Frank, these are not government figures. The Research Assessment Exercise is a peer-reviewed process, carried out by expert academic panels. Universities can only submit staff who meet stringent selection criteria. I work in a university and the amount of preparation, stress and hard work involved in submitting to the RAE cannot be imagined by anyone not engaged in the process. If you don't score well, you don't get funding so you really do have to demonstrate the value of what you do in minute detail. Maybe do some research yourself next time instead of just spouting stock phrases.
- Lj, london, 18/12/2008 21:58
Report abuse
Five London universities in the top 20 is hardly "domination" given the number of universities in London compared to other cities which have one or two.
Can London and Londoners not be proud to just be in the list? Why the need to dominate it?
- Ceep, Not London, UK, 18/12/2008 12:30
Report abuse
"There are lies, damned lies, and statistics."
Government fiddled figures again. Balls by name ...
- Frank, Home Counties, England, 18/12/2008 10:36
Report abuse
