Portsmouth is ranked third of all modern post-92 universities in the UK for research power
Research at the University of Portsmouth is rated as world-leading in the latest national assessment of the quality and impact of research in UK universities.
The results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), made public today, provide accountability for public investment in research, demonstrate the benefits of this investment and determine how much public money is given to fund research.
77 per cent of research submitted by the University is ranked in the highest categories - world-leading and internationally excellent - with wide-ranging impacts on society, health, culture and the environment.
In the Times Higher Education REF rankings, Portsmouth is ranked third of all modern post-92 universities in the UK for research power, which measures the quality and quantity of research submitted into the exercise.
For research quality, Portsmouth was ranked 6th of all UK universities for Physics and the top modern university for Physics. Portsmouth was also ranked as the number one modern university for research quality in both Mathematics and Area Studies, number three for Sports Science and in the top five for Business and Management, Psychology and Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences.
Our performance in the REF is a reflection of the quality of our research environment and demonstrates significant progress towards our long-term ambition to be the top modern UK university and in the top 100 young universities in the world by the end of the decade.
Examples of research recognised as having globally significant impact include:
- Ground-breaking discoveries on gravitational waves that have furthered our understanding of how fast the Universe is expanding.
- Research underpinning international and UK water safety policies and campaigns that has saved thousands of lives around the world.
- Research to help end violence against women and girls in South Asia.
- Helping to make electric vehicles safer, cheaper, more efficient and able to last longer between charges.
- Expertise which led to financial judgements worth $658 million made against 11 US banks for stock market fraud.
Professor Graham Galbraith, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, said:
“Our performance in the REF is a reflection of the quality of our research environment and demonstrates significant progress towards our long-term ambition to be the top modern UK university and in the top 100 young universities in the world by the end of the decade.”
I am delighted that we have significantly increased the number of staff included in the REF and at the same time improved the overall quality of our research. This gives us a great foundation on which to grow our world-leading research and build on new and emerging areas of excellence, such as our Revolution Plastics initiative, Mission Space and the Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality (CCIXR).
The University’s REF submission included 1,407 research outputs and 54 impact case studies across 16 subject disciplines and involved 603 academic staff, an increase from the 298 submitted in the last assessment exercise in 2014.
Professor Galbraith said: “I am delighted that we have significantly increased the number of staff included in the REF and at the same time improved the overall quality of our research. This gives us a great foundation on which to grow our world-leading research and build on new and emerging areas of excellence, such as our Revolution Plastics initiative, Mission Space and the Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality (CCIXR).
“By investing in research, we can embed research expertise within undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum. This ensures that all our students are exposed to world-leading and globally impactful research, being taught by staff who are leaders in their field. It will also allow us to enhance our postgraduate research culture and grow our supervision capacity to support increased numbers of postgraduate researchers.”