1. Faculty of Environment
  2. Institute for Transport Studies
  3. Working in partnership
  4. Our reputation

Our reputation

12th in the world for Transportation Science and Technology – Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2019

The Institute for Transport Studies is one of the UK's leading departments for transport teaching and research. We deliver internationally excellent research outputs, which impact upon transport policy and practice, and contribute to the wider economy and society.

We are continually committed to meeting the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard and improve the quality management of our research, development and consultancy contracts.

We have a diverse international community and a global alumni network spanning 58 countries to date.

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. 

The Institute for Transport Studies was assessed by the Civil and Construction Engineering sub-panel, as part of a joint submission with the University’s School of Civil Engineering.

  • 3.04 overall research quality profile
  • 7th in the UK for research quality
  • 2nd nationally for research power
  • 100% of our research environment is conducive to producing research of ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ quality
  • 92% of our research has either ‘outstanding’ or ‘very considerable’ impact
  • 85% of our research is ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’
  • 80% 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