These results demonstrate Cambridge’s strength in depth across research, in particular confirming our global leadership in the pure and applied sciences, clinical medicine, and in subjects as diverse as the Classics and business and management studies.
- Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz
Cambridge returned some 2,200 academics to the REF. Forty-seven percent of its submissions have been awarded the highest rating of 4* overall, meaning they are ‘world-leading’. This is an increase from 32% in 2008. A further 40% of submissions were rated 3* overall (internationally excellent).
Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, says: “These results demonstrate Cambridge’s strength in depth across research, in particular confirming our global leadership in the pure and applied sciences, clinical medicine, and in subjects as diverse as the Classics and business and management studies.
“The significant increase we have seen both in our average score and in the proportion of our research rated world leading is a reflection of the phenomenal research underway at Cambridge.”
The REF assesses the quality and impact of research submitted by UK universities across all disciplines. The results will be used by the four UK higher education funding bodies to allocate block-grant research funding to universities from 2015-16. It was previously known as the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), and was last conducted in 2008.
In this year’s REF, the University has also seen a significant increase in its average weighted score – the ‘grade point average’ – for its research, rising to 3.33 this year (from 2.98 in 2008).
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Image Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Credit: NIAID
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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