At a briefing hosted by Vice Chancellor, Bill Rammell, staff heard the how the REF (Research Excellence Framework) had classified almost half of the University’s research as world leading or internationally excellent – the highest ratings possible.

Mr Rammell said: “Our REF results aren’t a one-day, one-off – they are the culmination of much hard work.”

Stand out figures in comparison to the University’s last submission in 2008 included:

• Significant growth in quality on the basis of a very much larger submission
• Almost three times the number of staff compared to the 2008 assessment
• More than doubled the proportion of world leading research
• Nearly half of its research is considered to be world leading or internationally excellent.
• Increased the FTE staff equivalent judged to be delivering world-leading outputs by a factor of more than 8 (from 2.74 staff to 23.3)
• Quadrupled the FTE staff equivalent delivering 3* or 4* outputs (from 19.4 to 80.4);
• An improvement of 22 places in the REF Power Ranking – the fourth largest improvement in the sector.

The Vice Chancellor was delighted to report that although the University had submitted three times the numbers of staff compared to the 2008 assessment it had also been recognised for the quality of its submission.

“One particular statistic, for me, sums up this significant progress in both quality and quantity,” said Mr Rammell.

“In the REF, we have significantly more staff that are world leading or internationally excellent than the number of staff we submitted in total for the RAE in 2008.”

The Vice Chancellor concluded: “Having been the Minister in charge in the lead up to the previous research exercise, this is one of the days when I’m most honoured to be part of the University of Bedfordshire community and to lead our dynamic, transformative and inspirational institution.”

Further information on REF 2014 and the University of Bedfordshire can be found at www.beds.ac.uk/research-ref