Quality of Religious Research

 

Durham is the UK’s top-rated university for research in theology and religious studies, according to the results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework or REF (successor to the Research Assessment Exercise, last held in 2008), which are published today (18 December 2014). The REF was undertaken by the UK’s four higher education funding councils by means of a series of peer-review panels (theology and religious studies being unit of assessment 33), with research quality assessed from the perspective of outputs (i.e. publications, accounting for 65% of the score), social, economic, and cultural impact (20%), and research environment (15%). The outcomes of the REF will inform the distribution of funding for higher education research from 2015/16. 

Quality was judged according to whether research was world-leading (4*), internationally excellent (3*), recognized internationally (2*), recognized nationally (1*), or unclassified (U). The 4* and 3* categories combined are likely to be commonly taken as an indicator of top-notch research, and, on this basis, 68% of UK research in theology and religious studies was so rated, 8% less than for all disciplines. Durham University headed the table for 4* and 3* research in theology and religious studies (at 85%), more than three times the score of the bottom ranked institutions, although it was pipped to the post by the University of Birmingham in terms of the proportion of its research in the subject which was 4*. 

The following table summarizes the overall quality profile for theology and religious studies for each of the 33 higher education institutions (just over one-fifth of the total) which submitted for this unit of assessment, but sub-profiles for outputs, impact, and environment and the distribution of the 413 full-time equivalent staff entered for this REF unit of assessment can also be viewed at: 

http://results.ref.ac.uk/(S(b301damae2a1plttxocljhf1))/Results/ByUoa/33 

%

3*/4*

4*

3*

2*

1*/U

Durham

85

50

35

14

1

Exeter

83

21

62

14

3

Leeds

82

33

49

18

0

Cambridge

80

34

46

19

1

Birmingham

79

51

28

17

4

University College London

78

37

41

22

0

Edinburgh

78

34

44

19

3

SOAS

78

29

49

20

2

King’s College London

76

39

37

18

6

Cardiff

76

33

43

21

3

Lancaster

75

42

33

23

2

Kent

75

38

37

23

2

Manchester

75

28

47

20

5

Nottingham

74

30

44

23

3

Oxford

72

34

38

24

4

Sheffield

72

21

51

28

0

Aberdeen

68

29

39

24

8

National average

68

28

40

27

5

Bristol

66

21

45

32

2

St Andrews

62

31

31

38

0

Heythrop College London

62

22

40

36

2

Wales Trinity St David

62

14

48

26

12

Glasgow

55

11

44

35

10

Open

53

18

35

47

0

Canterbury Christ Church

53

6

47

40

7

Liverpool Hope

46

9

37

38

16

Roehampton

43

16

27

45

12

Winchester

42

6

36

43

15

St Mary’s Twickenham

35

9

26

41

24

Chester

35

8

27

57

8

Leeds Trinity

34

0

34

32

34

Gloucestershire

33

3

30

52

15

Newman

26

0

26

28

46

York St John

25

2

23

57

18

By way of footnote, and nothing to do with the REF, some BRIN readers may be interested to know that this is the 700th post since the BRIN news blog started five years ago. It is the 49th for 2014, with 293 individual stories covered during the year.

 

 


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