The London Enterprise Office

9th February 2009

Information released by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) on 5 January 2009 revealed that over two thirds of the research outputs submitted by the University to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) were judged to be ‘internationally recognised’, ‘internationally excellent’ or ‘world-leading’. Meanwhile, analysis conducted by the influential website, 'Research, Research', has revealed that London Metropolitan University ranks in the top half of UK Universities in terms of ‘research power’, coming 72nd out of 159 Universities submitted to the 2008 RAE.

Commenting on these results, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Development, Professor Paul Lister, said: ‘I would like to congratulate all of the staff involved for their hard work and dedication. These results confirm that London Metropolitan University has established itself as a leading research-intensive university with a pervasive culture of world class expertise across the natural and social sciences, arts and humanities, design and technology. Given the University’s strategic investment in policy-relevant and applied research, these results underscore the high quality of analytical services it offers to a wide range of commercial, public and voluntary sector partners across London and beyond.’

The University’s position in the research power rankings partly reflects the large number of academic staff whose research was submitted to the 2008 RAE - over 290 members of staff (260 FTE) and the 60th largest submission of the 159 universities submitted. However, the University’s position in the research power rankings also reflects the high quality of its research activities and while ‘internationally recognised’ research outputs were evident across all of the 21 subject areas to which these were submitted, outputs submitted to many of the subject areas fared even better.

In particular, more than 10% of the outputs submitted to six subject areas (Communication, Cultural and Media Studies; Architecture and the Built Environment; Pure Mathematics; Education; Social Work and Social Policy and Administration; and American Studies and Anglophone Area Studies) were judged to be ‘world-leading’, while submissions to most of these subject areas, as well as submissions to five more (Economics and Econometrics; Allied Health Professions and Studies; European Studies; Drama, Dance and Performing Arts; and Town and Country Planning), also had a third or more of their research outputs judged as ‘internationally excellent’ or better. Moreover, the University’s submissions in Education and European Studies were placed in the top 21% and 37%, respectively, of all submissions by UK universities in these subject areas, confirming the University’s status as an international centre of excellence in these interdisciplinary fields.

A full table of overall assessments for all of the 159 universities submitted to the 2008 RAE has been published by the Times Higher and can be found here.

A copy of the University’s 2008/2009 Research Brochure, detailing the university’s research activities, as well as opportunities for research collaboration and postgraduate research, can be found here.