Pause carousel
Play carousel
Abertay University's REF Assessments
The most significant external research assessment for UK higher education institutions is the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
REF is carried out periodically and considers the quality of research outputs, the impact of research beyond academia and the environment within which research takes place. REF is conducted jointly by the four UK higher education funding bodies representing Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Abertay's REF2021 results
A Modern Scottish University conducting internationally excellent and world-leading research.
The most recent REF exercise took place in 2021 (REF2021) and the results for Abertay were extremely positive, signifying an overall picture of strength and improvement.
Summary: Abertay recorded a 23% increase in research that is judged as 'internationally excellent' or 'world-leading' since the last REF in 2014 (REF2014) – the biggest climb of any Scottish university, according to our analysis. We achieved an average GPA (weighted to take account of the relative size of each submission) of 2.66, an increase of 0.5 from the equivalent figure for REF2014. Our overall score rates our research, impact and environment as 'quality that is recognised internationally in terms of originality, significance and rigour'.
We showed particularly strong performances and had the highest GPAs for any Scottish Modern University submitted in Art & Design (UoA 32) which covers our work in digital games; Engineering (UoA 12) which includes our work in cybersecurity, computing, forensics and environmental engineering; Food Science (UoA 6); and Psychology (UoA 4), which respectively had 83%, 73%, 65% and 60% of research rated as 'internationally excellent' or 'world-leading'.
Find out more about our REF2021 results
Abertay and REF2029
REF2029 is the UK's upcoming national system for assessing the quality and impact of research in higher education institutions.
Find out more about our approach to REF2029
Our inclusive approach to the REF process
Abertay takes an inclusive approach to the REF process - every staff member submitted is also involved in teaching our students.
We submitted 80% of our eligible academic staff to REF2021, compared to 36% in REF2014. This inclusive approach is central to our long-term plan to embed a research-led culture right across Abertay, underpinning everything we do in research, knowledge-exchange, innovation and teaching.
Across the UK we are ranked 101 for GPA by the THE, and 115th out of 157 institutions in terms of Power (i.e. the total contribution our research makes as a proportion of the total research generated by UK universities).
This places us in the second quantile, a very good result for an institution of our size.
