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Science Faculty RAE 2008

25 March 2009

RAE2008, the UK national audit of research quality, has confirmed that the University of Bristol's Faculty of Science is one of the UK’s leading centres of research excellence.

The Faculty was ranked 3rd among its peers in the UK after Oxford and Cambridge as judged by the volume weighted "grade point average" (GPA) of its units of assessment (see table).

We made returns in 9 areas, Units of Assessment (UoAs):

  • Biological Sciences
  • Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
  • Chemistry, Physics
  • Pure Mathematics
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Statistics and Operational Research
  • Geography and Environmental Studies
  • Psychology

Two thirds of the Faculty’s research activity was rated at the highest 4* or 3* levels (“world leading” or “internationally excellent”) and 95% at least “internationally recognised” (2* or better). Visit our RAE results page for a listing of all Bristol results by UoA.

Our submission to RAE 2008 included a much increased number of staff - up by over 40% - compared with 2001 (the date of the last RAE). Many of the staff returned at a relatively early stage in their career. Our performance therefore reflects an exceptional depth of talent, future capacity for development and environment for world leading research.

RAE 2008 results for the top 12 UK science faculties a

Institution c Mean GPA d Rank Units e
University of Oxford 2.927 1 9
University of Cambridge 2.912 2 9
University of Bristol b 2.848 3 9
Imperial College London 2.833 4 6
University of Nottingham 2.769 5 8
University of Sheffield 2.768 6 9
University of Durham 2.760 7 9
Birkbeck College 2.759 8 3
University of St Andrews 2.759 9 8
University College London 2.758 10 9
University of Edinburgh 2.752 11 9
University of Manchester 2.749 12 9

Notes

a. "Science" is taken to be the nine UoAs: 14A, 17,18,19,20,21,22,32,44, as in Bristol

b. Bristol volume for UoA 22 (Applied Maths) has been reduced to 50% to Science (and the other 50% attributed to Engineering)

c. Only institutions with at least 3 “Science” UoAs returned are included in list

d. Mean Grade Point Average (GPA) value is calculated according to the amounts of 4, 3, 2 and 1* activity for each UoA weighted by the number of staff whose work was evaluated.

e. Number of UoAs entered within Bristol Science remit

Please contact Christine Fraser for further information.