Research Assessment Exercise (RAE2008)

United Kingdom universities are invited by the funding councils to submit evidence of their research to be judged roughly every six years to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).  Each university submits the research outputs for Units of Assessment (UoA).  The research quality is then rated by expert panels on a rising scale of 1*, 2*, 3* and 4* with 4* being the highest or 'world-leading'.

Some key facts

• Seven out of 16 UoA received the highest rating of 'world leading' in their overall quality profile
• 63 per cent of the research at Coventry University was rated international, internationally excellent or world-leading
• Since the last Research Assessment Exercise in 2001, 81 per cent of the UoA improved their ratings
• The number of academic staff submitted to these UoA has almost doubled (135.9 FTE from 67.2 FTE) since RAE 2001
• Our position in league tables varies from 83 to 106 depending on the method used to construct the table

As a University we believe that research culture is an important indicator of student experience.  By submitting to 16 UoA we can truly claim there is world-leading and internationally excellent research in every faculty and in most departments.

It would have been relatively easy to submit one or two exceptional members of staff to just a few UoA and thereby increase the apparent percentage of world-leading or internationally excellent research. However, the University’s view is that it is important to submit both experienced and early career researchers to obtain a true quality profile of a subject area. This gives potential students, researchers and those looking for an R&D partner a much more informed view of the breadth of quality research that is going on.