"Today is the culmination of seven years of hard work for our research (and professional services) staff as the results of the Research Excellence Framework 2021 (REF2021) are announced.

For those of you new to the higher education sector, REF2021 is an assessment of the work of all researchers, in all departments, in all universities by hundreds of assessors – world leaders in their fields – and has a tangible impact upon our ability to secure research funding.

I know our research is exceptional, you know our research is ground-breaking. Today, we have cemented our place among the UK’s leading research institutions with 92% of our work judged as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

The REF2021 results show the UK research environment is thriving. We are at the forefront of this since 50% of all our REF2021 submissions were rated world-leading (four stars). A further 42% was assessed to be ‘internationally excellent’ (three stars) by the experts. We should be incredibly proud of this and the recognition of the impact our work has on the world.

We can be hugely optimistic about our future: one in eight of our independent researchers are on funded fellowships, many are early career researchers, the future of the Warwick research community.

In the mid-1960s we had just a few hundred students and today we are recognised as one of UK’s research powerhouses. We can and should be proud of this result, every one of us; because everyone – not just our researchers – has contributed to this outcome.

Our professional and support staff; our technicians; our cleaners, porters, and community safety teams; our professional educators; our colleagues across Campus and Commercial services group; and of course, our students who, engaging in research-led curricula across our campus, have contributed through the co-creation of knowledge.

Research and education are at the core of the University of Warwick and we pride ourselves on our real world application of these insights and expertise. We are recognised for all of these: 92% of our work is internationally excellent, we are rated as University of the Year for Teaching Quality and as runner-up for University of the Year by the Sunday Times’ Good University Guide 2022.

It is important this is recognised externally but it is equally, if not more so, important for our community of staff and students to recognise and celebrate these successes.

You can read more about REF on our webpagesLink opens in a new window, but you can also hear first-hand from some of our researchersLink opens in a new window at the dedicated REF section of insite.

With best wishes,

Stuart Croft
Vice-Chancellor and President

12 May 2022