gair rhydd y Monday January 26th 2015 | freeword | Issue 1041
In this week’s issue: What you missed during the Christmas recess, an interview with Plaid’s Cardiff Central candidate, diversity at the Oscars and the great Sun page 3 switcheroo
Turning the tables: research rankings scrutinised • Investigation into REF results casts doubt on ‘Golden Triangle’ claim • PLUS: Cardiff University ‘22nd of 25’ Universities in health research (page 7) Alexander Norton Sum Sze Tam
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ardiff University claims to have “broken into the golden triangle” of Britain’s leading research universities on the back of its results in the national Research Excellence Framework (REF) rankings. The institution placed fifth overall in the UK in terms of quality and impact – and sixth in terms of the percentage of its research (40.5%) categorised as world-leading. However, closer investigation has revealed that the precise scale of the university’s achievement is open to debate. Cardiff University submitted units
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for just 738 of its 1,182 academic staff, meaning that only 62% of eligible research was sent for assessment. This means that the institution submitted 292 fewer works than at the last assessment in 2008, coinciding with a rise from twenty-second to fifth in the overall rankings. This is the lowest submission rate of any institution ranked in the top forty. It pales in comparison to the mean 87% submission rate achieved by the nine other institutions in the top ten UK universities. This top ten is based on the highest proportions of 4*
(world-leading) rated research excluding institutions with fewer than three departments submitted. The figure has provoked concerns that the sample submitted by Cardiff is not wholly representative of its research portfolio. According to the Times Higher Education, Cardiff University falls from sixth place to 50th when the GPA is multiplied by the fraction of eligible staff submitted. This fraction is calculated by dividing the actual number of staff submitted by the number eligible to be submitted.
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The contentious outcome of the £60m REF assessment led the academic community to issue a spate of self-congratulatory messages on social networks and in press releases this month. 87% of Cardiff University’s submitted research was categorised in the upper two tiers of star rated research – a figure bettered only by the London School of Economics, Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London. This figure compares favourably with the UK average of 76% world class research.
Pictured: A projection on Main Building (Photographer: Greg McChesney)
Continued on page 4
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