King's achieved excellent results in REF 2021, sustaining the College's position amongst the world’s best universities for research excellence and power.
King’s Ranking Summary
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6 – 2021 Power1 Rank
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8 – 2021 4* Rank
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6 – 2021 Quality Index2 Rank
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9 – 2021 GPA3 Rank
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Some of the key data is highlighted below:
- Overall, 55.1% of the work submitted was rated 4* (world leading).
- On Power1 rankings (weighted quality multiplied by the size of the submission), King's maintained its position at 6th.
- On Impact, King's ranked 3rd amongst multi-faculty universities.
Achievements by individual Units of Assessment:
- Allied Health (including the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, as well as the School of Life Course Sciences and the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine) is 1st in the country for quality of research and has 100 percent 4* ranking for research environment;
- Business and Management are 9th in the country for quality of research;
- Chemistry has 100 percent 4* ranking for impact, and is 5th in the country for quality of research;
- Classics (part of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities) is 1st in the country for quality of research;
- Clinical Medicine has 100 percent 4* ranking for research environment;
- Engineering are 12th in the country for quality of research;
- Modern Languages has 100 percent 4* ranking for research environment;
- Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience is 2nd in the country for power and achieved 100 percent 4* ranking for research ‘environment’;
- Politics and International Studies is 1st for power*;
- Sport and Exercise Science has 100% 4* ranking for impact;
- Theology and Religious Studies has 100 percent 4* ranking for research environment
The full REF results can be accessed at ref.ac.uk and examples of our impact case studies can be seen at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/spotlight.
1 The Power score takes into account both the quality and the quantity of research activity, with a weighting applied only to research at 4* and 3*.
2 The Quality Index is similar to the GPA but gives an additional weighting to the proportion of research at the higher star level. The index that the College has used is % 4* x 9, % 3* x 3, divided by 9. Different league tables may use different proportions for this.
3 GPA (Grade Point Average) represents an average score (out of four) for the submission to a unit of assessment and is derived by multiplying the percentage of the submission at each of the levels (4*, 3*, 2*, 1*) by the number of the star ranking and dividing by 100.
The REF 2021 Oversight Group (chaired by Professor Reza Razavi) had strategic oversight of King’s submission to the REF and was responsible for ensuring that progress was made, and oversaw and signed off arrangements for matters related to the university’s policy for submission. The Group reported to the Senior Management Team and to the College Research Committee.
Submissions to each of the four REF Main Panels were coordinated through a Main Panel Co-ordination group, whose responsibility was to determine the internal policy for submissions across all the Units of Assessment related to that Panel.
College Impact Committee
The College Impact Committee (CIC) brings together the expertise of academic and professional services staff across the College to support the development of research impact activities and to share best practice for impact development and evaluation in all research carried out at the College.
The Chair of the CIC is the Dean of Research Impact, Professor Mike Goodman. Membership of the CIC includes Academic Impact Leads for each faculty and the Professional Services Impact Leads.