Outstanding recognition for the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies in the 2014 REF rankings

What is the Research Excellence Framework (REF)?

To distribute funds selectively on the basis of quality, the four UK higher education funding bodies – the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Scottish Funding Council, Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and the Department for Education, Northern Ireland – assess universities’ research through a periodic exercise.

On the basis of the results of REF, the four UK higher education funding bodies will allocate around £2bn of research funding per year, from 2015-16 onwards.

Latest results and REF rankings

Nottingham is ranked eighth in the UK on a measure of ‘research power’, which takes into account both the quality of research and the number of research-active staff who made REF returns.

In the Faculty of Arts at Nottingham, more than 97% of research is of international quality according to REF, with 72% graded as ‘world-leading’ or internationally excellent’. Five of the 11 units submitted were in the top ten by research power.

The Department of American and Canadian Studies was the highest ranked American Studies department in the country for research power and research impact in the Research Excellence Framework. 94% of their research activity was recognized as work of international standing, with 73% as world-leading or internationally excellent. 100% of it was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent in terms of its impact, with 63% of the research impact judged as 4* world-leading.

REF2014 confirmed the position of the Department of Culture, Film and Media amongst the foremost departments for cultural and media research, with 100% of published outputs and 100% of overall research activity recognized as work of international standing. 40% of research activity was judged to be 4* world-leading, and a further 43% recognized as 3* internationally excellent.

Modern Languages and Linguistics ranked 5th nationally
Bringing together the departments of French & Francophone Studies, German Studies, Russian & Slavonic Studies, and Spanish, Portuguese & Latin-American Studies, Modern Languages at Nottingham was ranked fifth nationally in the UK in terms of research power (a measure that combines the quality of research with the number of researchers included). 97% of our research was classed as having international quality; 100% of our research environment, and of the social and cultural impact of our research, was deemed to be of international quality, with 82.9% of research in Modern Languages graded as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ in terms of its impact. This excellent outcome confirms the position of Nottingham as a leading centre of excellence in the UK for research in all its language areas.

For more #REF2014 details and statistics, see the UoN page: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/excellence/refresults.aspx