Our outstanding contributions to the field have been recognised by assessors in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework [REF].

We’re very pleased to announce that LSE Philosophy was ranked joint 3rd overall in the UK in the REF (by GPA) for the quality and impact of our research and for the quality of our research environment. A stunning 98% of the research we submitted was judged to be world leading or internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour; testimony to the depth of the research capacity of the department.

 

The very substantial contributions of our research to society were also recognised, with all of the case studies documenting the social impact of our work being rated as excellent.

The impact of our research outside of academia is exemplified by the work of Professor Alex Voorhoeve in helping shape the World Health Organization’s report Making Fair Choice of the Path to Universal Health Coverage, and by Professors Richard Bradley and Roman Frigg in their Managing Severe Uncertainty project.

Further information about LSE’s performance in REF 2021 is available on The School’s main website.

 

 

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system by which the UK’s higher education funding bodies assess the quality of research in publicly funded UK higher education institutions (HEIs).  REF 2021 comprised three elements:

 

  • academic outputs, comprising a portfolio based on the FTE of REF-eligible staff submitted;
  • research impact, submitted as a number of impact case studies (ICSs) in proportion to the total FTE of REF-eligible staff submitted;
  • research environment, comprising the total number of research degrees awarded between 2014 and 2020, total research income received over the same time period, and an environment statement detailing how the submitting unit(s) supported research and impact over the period.

 

Outputs, impact and environment were weighted 60:25:15 respectively. All three elements were graded on a scale from 0 (unclassified) to 4* (world leading) and the results were published as quality profiles showing the percentage of outputs, impact and environment considered to meet each of the starred levels.  Submissions were invited to 34 Units of Assessment (UoAs); LSE made 15 submissions to 13 UoAs across the SHAPE subjects.

For REF2021, HEIs were required to submit research outputs by all eligible members of staff.  Each submitted member of staff could submit between one and five outputs, with the total number of outputs per UoA calculated as total FTE of staff multiplied by 2.5

Staff were eligible for REF2021 where they were on a teaching-and-research or research-only contract of at least 0.2 FTE on 31 July 2020 and had a substantive connection to the submitting HEI.  Research-only staff also had to be classified as independent researchers.  HEIs were also required to identify which eligible staff had significant responsibility for research.  LSE submitted 100% of its staff meeting these definitions, but other HEIs had eligible staff who did not have significant responsibility for research and hence had a submission rate of less than 100%.

See here for a full glossary of REF terminology.