The University is to receive one of the largest increases in research funding following success in the recent exercise to assess research quality.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announced today (26 March) that Kent, one of the UK’s leading research institutions, will receive a 27.3% increase in research funding. This rise represents the fifth highest in the country and is greater than that received by universities such as Oxford and LSE.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) in December 2014 ranked Kent 17th in the UK for research intensity* and achieved the third largest increase of the top 50 research intensive universities for research power (59%). The University was judged to have world-leading research in all the subjects it submitted.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow said: ‘This increase reflects our position as a world-class institution for research. Research funding from HEFCE is an important part of the University’s income and will support the continuing development of our internationally competitive research activities.’
* of 122 universities not including specialist institutions; rankings are taken from the Times Higher Education, Jan 2015.