Research Assessment
RAE 2008
The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) was a UK-wide exercise run on behalf of the four UK higher education funding bodies. The results inform the Higher Education Funding Council's (HEFCE) allocations of quality rated (QR) research funding. Of all the University of Oxford’s research activity submitted to the RAE 2008, 32 per cent was rated 4* (world leading) and 70 per cent was rated either 4* or 3* (world-leading or internationally excellent).
ODID was identified as the leader in its field in the RAE 2008 with 35 per cent of our research activity rated as 4*, and 65 per cent 4* and 3*. We were ranked first in our Unit of Assessment (Development Studies), the only Oxford social science department to achieve this unshared.
The HEFCE assessment judged that:
"Over 90 per cent of outputs were at least internationally recognised, with significant proportions at both internationally excellent and world leading quality levels. Excellence was well spread across the department, but particularly evident in the ‘international economics and global governance’ and ‘poverty and human development’ research clusters."
"Overall, the research environment was judged to be highly conducive to research of outstanding quality. The research funding record from both research councils and UK government sources was very good, as was the number of studentships. A doubling of research student numbers over the assessment period was noted."
"Research infrastructure was very impressive. Very strong evidence was provided of international collaboration, and of impact on policy."
REF 2014
The Department is now preparing for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, where it will be entered in the UoA ‘Anthropology and Development Studies’ along with the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME). These two departments already collaborate closely through joint teaching, area interests and cognate disciplines. The REF submission is coordinated by Professor Valpy FitzGerald (ODID) and Professor David Gellner (SAME).
Photo: J Nair
