West Midlands universities praised for research capabilities

UNIVERSITIES in the West Midlands have made a strong showing in the latest government initiative for assessing the quality of research across all UK higher education institutions.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is overseen by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and is used by the government to decide how public funding of research is shared amongst universities.

Warwick was ranked as the seventh highest university in the 2014 rankings announced today, which repeats its ranking in the last exercise in 2008.  Fourteen of Warwick’s academic departments were also ranked in the top 10 in the UK.

They are:  English (1st);  Agriculture, Food and Veterinary research in the current School of Life Sciences (2nd); Computer Science (2nd);  Mathematics Institute (3rd);  Statistics (3rd); Philosophy (4th);   Economics (5th); Chemistry (6th); Politics (6th); Film and Television Studies (6th);  Theatre Studies (6th);  History (7th); Classics (8th); and School of Law (10th).

Adding to this, on actual research outputs 19 of Warwick’s departments were ranked in the top 10 in the UK and four were ranked as the leading academic departments in the country.

Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift said: “This result is the outcome of much hard work and commitment on a great many staff at Warwick. And it confirms Warwick’s UK reputation as one of the UK’s and world’s leading research universities.”

Elsewhere, Aston University received ‘world leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’ accreditation for nearly 80% of its overall research.

In specific research subject areas, Aston University’s Area Studies is rated 3rd in the UK; Allied Health Professions 5th in the UK; and Business Studies 17th in the UK for research classed as world leading (4* star) or internationally excellent (3* star).

Business Studies, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Computer Engineering all received a maximum 100% for Research Impact – the real world effect their 4-star and 3-star academic research has upon society, communities and businesses.
 
Aston University Vice Chancellor, Professor Dame Julia King, said: “We are delighted that the REF results reflect the ‘world leading’ and ‘internationally excellent’ research carried out by the many leading thinkers amongst our academic staff. Their research directly influences medical breakthroughs, advancements in engineering, policy and practice in government, and the strategies and performance of local and international business.

“To maintain global excellence for our research during these challenging economic times is always difficult and our strong performance in the REF will be vital to continue our investment in research that delivers applicable and exploitable results for society as a whole.”

The panel rated 94% of Coventry University’s research submitted for the assessment in the field of ‘Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy’ as either 4-star (world leading) or 3-star (internationally excellent).
 
As a result, the university ranks joint 5th in the UK for the quantity of its research in the allied health professions category receiving the top ratings of four or three stars.
 
Professor Kevin Warwick, deputy vice-chancellor for research at Coventry University, said:
 
“Today’s results from the REF reflect the significant strides that Coventry University is making in its ambition to dramatically enhance its reputation for research. All nine of the categories we submitted research in featured work which achieved the best possible ratings, which is a huge improvement over our results from the last assessment in 2008.
 
“We’ve taken a fresh approach to our research strategy which has seen considerable investment of £150m in new facilities, new staff and new and exciting PhD opportunities for young researchers. The result is that we’re already seeing Coventry’s research making a real impact in the world around us.”

The University of Wolverhampton put forward more staff and more subject areas for REF 2014 than in the previous assessment and it demonstrated that all areas of research had world leading elements.

Among the areas to be classed as ‘world leading’ quality, was work by renowned Professor of Information Science Mike Thelwall and his team, whose work includes measuring the value of web pages.

Other areas of particular strength which were highlighted include health, history and modern languages research.

The results mark a significant improvement for the University on the last national analysis of research, the Research Assessment Exercise in 2008.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Geoff Layer, said: “This truly recognises the development of applied research at the University of Wolverhampton. It demonstrates the progress the university has made and its major contribution to the economic growth regionally, nationally and internationally.”

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