The results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) were released today and we are incredibly happy to announce that the School of Arts has achieved 1st in the UK in our category of Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts with a total research power score of 121.60.
83% of our research has been assessed as world leading or internationally excellent in terms of its originality, significance and rigor. This is an outstanding result and places us within the top quartile of all UK Universities undertaking research in the arts.
We also recived 90% 4* for our Research Environment which puts us fourth in the league table.
The REF is the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions and was conducted jointly by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland (DEL).
The primary purpose of REF 2014 was to assess the quality of research and produce outcomes for each submission made by institutions. The four higher education funding bodies will use the assessment outcomes to inform the selective allocation of their grant for research to the institutions which they fund, with effect from 2015-16.
We are absolutely delighted with these results as it truly celebrates the hard work and dedication put into our research at the School of Arts. Congratulations to all!