1. Faculty of Environment
  2. School of Geography
  3. Research and innovation
  4. Our reputation

Our reputation

Top 20 in the world for Geography - QS World University Rankings by Subject 2018

The quality of our research, and the funding it attracts, means we’re able to invest in world-class facilities and academic staff who are actively engaged in cutting-edge research. Our academics are internationally renowned and working at the top of their fields – at the forefront of knowledge and thinking. 

Our achievements

Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014

Every six years, the UK’s four higher education funding bodies undertake an exercise to measure the quality of research undertaken by UK higher education institutions (HEIs). The funding bodies use the outcomes to inform the allocation of their research funding to HEIs. The Research Excellence Framework was the framework used in 2014.

Unit of assessment: Geography, Environmental Studies and Archaeology

  • 3.07 overall research quality profile
  • 5th in the UK for research power
  • 100% of our research environment is conducive to producing research of ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ quality
  • Over 70% of our research has either ‘outstanding’ or ‘very considerable’ impact
  • Over 75% of our research is ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’
  • Over 70% of our research outputs are ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’

The overall research quality profile is based upon assessment of quality in three sub-profiles:

  1. Outputs (65% of overall quality profile): published research outputs are assessed in terms of their ‘originality, significance and rigour’.
  2. Impact (20%): the benefits of research beyond academia are assessed in terms of their ‘reach’ and ‘significance’.
  3. Environment (15%): the environment within which research is conducted is assessed in terms of its ‘vitality and sustainability’.

Research power represents a measure of volume (i.e. the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) academics which were submitted for assessment through REF) combined with quality (i.e. GPA).

The REF was conducted jointly by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland (DEL).

To see the REF2014 results from the across the University of Leeds: http://ref2014.leeds.ac.uk

University awards