Top in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in REF Assessment

The REF 2014 results show that the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) is ranked top for research in the country's EEE sector.

Although placed third behind Cambridge and Oxford in the Unit of Assessment 13 (UoA13) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Metallurgy and Materials, the Oxbridge submissions were from their Materials Departments and not from EEE.

Our Department submitted 100% of its eligible staff, and 49% of their research was rated as “world leading” (4*). This is significantly above University of Leeds in the second place (scoring 41% 4*) and UCL in third place (scoring 40% 4*).

97% of our research was rated as either “world leading” or “internationally excellent”.

Impact case studies

For this round of research assessment, a new “non-academic impact” category has been introduced which is worth 20% of the overall evaluation. We were required to demonstrate how our research since 1993 has produced impact in society, economy, industry, commerce and other domains.

The Department submits five case studies and a narrative document stating how we bring about such impact from our research. Our entire impact submission was ranked 4*, the only submission in UoA13 to do so.

Read a summary of impact for all our five case studies.

The Department submitted 176 publications from our 44.2 staff (FTE) for evaluation. Of these, 32.4% were ranked “world leading” (4*) and 63.6% were ranked “internationally excellent” (3*).

Commenting on the Department’s REF achievement Professor Peter Cheung, Head of Department of EEE, said, "The REF result demonstrates that our department is deservedly ranked among one of the best EEE departments in the world. This is all due to the outstanding quality of our staff and their dedication to world-class research and education.

"We are particularly proud that our research does not only produce excellent research papers, but also contribute significantly to our economy, industry and society. This is clearly demonstrated by our top rating achieved in the impact category of the evaluation. We are particularly grateful for support we have received from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC). The research described in our five top-rated impact case studies were all funded by EPSRC over the past two decades."