The quality and impact of Cardiff’s research has led to a meteoric rise in league tables, pushing it into the UK’s top 5 universities.
Cardiff University has broken into the “Golden Triangle” of Oxford, Cambridge and London, and confirmed its place as a world-leading university.
The University has climbed 17 places in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), a national assessment of research by the four UK funding bodies, making it the fastest rising amongst the leading research universities of the Russell Group.
Cardiff University key results:
- 5th university nationally on rankings based on quality
- 2nd nationally on rankings based on impact, beaten only by Imperial College, London on this new measure
- 5 out of 27 academic disciplines are first on impact. These are Architecture, Built Environment and Planning; Civil and Construction Engineering; Communication, Cultural and Media Studies; General Engineering; Modern Languages and Linguistics (this included the School of Welsh)
- 6 out of 27 academic disciplines are in the top 5 on quality. These are Civil and Construction Engineering (1st in UK); Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (2nd in UK); Communication, Cultural and Media Studies (2nd in UK); Sociology (3rd in UK); Allied Health (joint 4th in UK); Education (joint 5th in UK)
- 15 out of 27 of its academic disciplines are rated in the top ten on quality, competing against other universities as well as specialist institutions
- 87 per cent of research assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent.
The Research Excellence Framework is made up of Units of Assessment (UoA). The UoA’s relevant to the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences were numbers 1 to 5. You can see how they performed by following the links below:
UoA1 – Clinical medicine
UoA2 – Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care
UoA3 – Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy
UoA4 – Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience
UoA5 – Biological sciences
Key messages for the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences
- College has two UoAs in the Top 5 for GPA – Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (2nd) and Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy (4th)
- Clinical Medicine in the Top 10 (8th); Biological Sciences 13th, Public Health, Health Services and Primary Care 20th
- College offers research excellence across the breadth of Main Panel A
About REF
The results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), announced on 18th December, demonstrate the world-leading quality of research conducted in UK universities. For the first time in an exercise of this kind, the REF also highlights the wide-ranging and significant benefits that UK research brings to the economy and society.
The REF provides a robust and thorough assessment of the quality of universities’ research in all disciplines. The research of 52,061 academic staff from 154 UK universities was peer-reviewed by a series of panels comprising UK and international experts, and external users of research.
The REF provides accountability for public investment in research and demonstrates the benefits of that investment. The results provide benchmarks and public information about the research performance of universities. The results will be used by the four UK higher education funding bodies to allocate research funding to universities – around £2 billion per year from 2015-16.
Further information about the REF results can be found at the following: