Research Assessment Exercise finds Imperial College home to UK’s greatest concentration of world-leading and internationally excellent research

73 per cent of staff research is judged world-leading or internationally excellent

Imperial College London was judged as being home to the greatest concentration of world-leading and internationally excellent rated research amongst all multi-faculty UK universities in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), whose results were published in December 2008.

Not only did 73 per cent of the College's staff have their research judged as world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*), the highest percentage of all UK multi-faculty universities, but the College also increased both the number and the percentage of staff submitted to the assessment compared to the preceding RAE which took place in 2001. Ninety-three per cent of Imperial's academic staff, a total of 1,225, were selected for inclusion in the 2008 RAE compared to 87 per cent in 2001, representing a 6.7 per cent increase in terms of actual staff numbers.

The results also judged the College to have six of the UK's top-rated (4*) research areas in Chemical Engineering; Civil Engineering; Epidemiology; Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering; History; and Pure Mathematics.

See how research in your former department or subject was judged

Imperial College Business School

Top in the UK (based on proportion of 4* and 3* research)

Faculty of Engineering

Top in the UK (based on volume of 4* and 3* research)

• Aeronautics (see Mechanical Engineering)
• Bioengineering - 2nd in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)
• Chemical Engineering - Top in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)
• Civil Engineering - Top in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)
• Computing - 2nd in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)
• Electrical Engineering - 2nd in the UK (based on proportion of 4* & 3* research)
• Earth Science and Engineering - 2nd in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)
• Materials - 5th in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)

• Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautical Engineering - Top in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)

Faculty of Medicine

2nd in the UK (based on volume of 4* research)

Highlights include:

• Cancer Studies - Top in the UK (based on volume of 4* research)

• Epidemiology and Public Health - Top in the UK (based on proportion 4* research)

Faculty of Natural Sciences

2nd in the UK (based on proportion of 4* & 3* research)

• Biological Sciences - 3rd in the UK (based on volume of 4* research)
• Chemistry - 3rd in the UK (based on proportion of 4* & 3* research)
• Mathematics:

Pure - Top in the UK (based on proportion 4* research);
Applied - 4th in the UK (based on volume 4* & 3* research);
Statistics - 2nd in the UK (based on proportion of 4* & 3* research)

• Physics - 2nd in the UK (based on volume of 4* & 3* research)

• History - Top in the UK (based on proportion of 4* research)

What the Rector said about the College's RAE results

Rector of Imperial College London, Sir Roy Anderson, said: "Imperial College London is very proud to be part of the UK university research success story. Imperial has once again demonstrated its commitment to, and achievement of, continued excellence, as it has in every previous RAE.

"I'm delighted by the results which show that Imperial College London is home to the greatest concentration of world-leading and internationally excellent research of all UK universities.

"I am particularly proud that Imperial has the top percentage score for research rated 4* or 3* of all UK multi-faculty universities. Furthermore, in achieving these results Imperial College has increased the total number of staff submitted since 2001, and has raised the percentage of academic staff selected for inclusion in the RAE."

Sir Roy underlined the value to the UK of rewarding those institutions which have consistently performed at the highest level in successive RAEs: "The results demonstrate again the value of selective funding, where resources flow to the highest quality research areas. The fact that the UK has four universities judged to be in the world's top 10* is no accident. The UK's top universities already punch well beyond their weight. Only by investing in this excellence will the UK maintain a globally competitive edge."

"Therefore continued excellence must be recognised and rewarded. Universities like Imperial College that have consistently performed at the highest levels, and submitted a very high proportion of its staff, must receive substantial support.

Imperial College London's full rankings are available at: www.imperial.ac.uk/rae/results

Data definitions

RAE 2008 Quality Ratings:

4* - Quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour;
3* - Quality that is internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour but which nonetheless falls short of the highest standards of excellence;
2* - Quality that is recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour;
1* - Quality that is recognised nationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour;
Unclassified - Quality that falls below the standard of nationally recognised work. Or work which does not meet the published definition of research for the purposes of assessment.

Volume: Number of full time equivalent (FTE) of Academic staff submitted for assessment.

Classifications at the Faculty level are based on the aggregate of scores to the relevant units of assessment (UoA), weighted by staff FTE and exclude institutions that made submissions to three or fewer UoAs.