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Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014

We’ve transformed our global research capability, as shown by the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) – a UK-wide review of research in UK academic institutions.

World leading research doubled

UEL's REF 2014 Submission

  • UEL submitted to 13 UoA’s
  • 157 staff submitted 
  • 44 early career researchers submitted 
  • 27 impact case studies submitted 

The 2014 REF review showed that UEL has almost doubled its output of world-leading research. And over 62 per cent of research was classed Internationally excellent – confirming our position as a research leader among London’s modern universities.

See our ref 2014 results

About the REF

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.
154 UK Universities took part in REF 2014 with a total of 1911 submissions which include:

  • 52,077 academic staff
  • 191,232 research outputs
  • 6,975 impact case studies
36 expert sub-panels reviewed the submissions, which were overseen by four main panels. The quality of each submission was graded on average where:

  • 4* is world leading
  • 3* is internationally excellent
  • 2* is recognised internationally
  • 1* is recognised nationally

Around £2 billion per year of research funding will be allocated on the basis of the results from the REF.




The overall quality is derived from three major components:

Research output
65%
research impact
20%
research environment
15%

Research Strengths

There are many areas of individual strength across UEL's different academic areas, including:

  • 80%

    80% of communication, culture and media studies research is world-leading or internationally excellent.

  • 86%

    86% of health research rated world-leading or internationally excellent.

  • 1st

    UEL ranked equal first in England for the impact of its psychology research.