Imperial College Physics reaffirms its research strength in RAE 2008

The Department of Physics at Imperial College London was confirmed as the second strongest Physics research department in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise

The Department of Physics at Imperial College London was confirmed as the second strongest Physics research department in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE, http://www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2008/01/).  The assessment produced a profile of submitted research activity, categorised in five bands, namely 4* (‘world leading’), 3* (‘internationally excellent’), 2* (‘recognised internationally’), 1* (‘recognised nationally’) and U/C (unclassified). The table below records the percentages of activity adjudged by the RAE Panel to fall within each category for all UK Departments of Physics.  Also listed in the Table is the full time equivalent (FTE) number of staff submitted by each department.

To assess the strength of departments we use the approach presented in Nature (vol.457, p.13, 1 Jan 2009) defined as the number of staff who are regarded as world-leading (rated 4*) or internationally excellent (rated 3*) in their field.  These values are shown in the final column of the Table below and the ranking is presented on this basis. 

An alternative approach, which has been used by some organisations to rank performance, is the grade point average (GPA) score which is the weighted average of scores at each band (where 4* is scored 4 points etc. down to U/C scored 0).  The use of the GPA as a measure of the overall quality is clearly flawed, as some departments may have left eligible, lower-achieving, staff out of their submissions. The RAE report does not indicate the FTE numbers of staff who were eligible at each institution; Imperial College Physics Department submitted an FTE number greater than 100% of its HEFCE-funded staff, due to the inclusion of some independent Research Fellows.