Page 16 - ELG2207 Jul Issue 481

SPECIAL FEATURE .

PHOTO BY BY MARIÁN OKÁI FROM PIXABAY

Understanding the REF
Understanding the REF

A crash course in what it means, why it’s important and how to use it, by Melanie Butler

he Research Excellence Framework to have produced world class or internationally ‘plate glass’ universities founded in the 60s or
(REF) for 2021 is out, a year late excellent work in education or in English the post-92 institutions, which were awarded
because of Covid, but causing the language or in linguistics. It is up to prospective university status after 1992 – could also rise to
Ttraditional pride and anguish to students to work out which field most closely the top in a particular area.
university departments the length and breadth aligns with their academic interests and career Take the top performers in our three Units of
of Britain. The Government-backed exercise ambitions, and which departments in each Assessment: Britain’s most ancient university,
assesses the quality of academic research field most interests them. Oxford, tops the ELT-related Master’s charts
across the country, in the experts’ judgements, We must emphasise that a research-active in education, the hugely popular plate glass
delivered across 34 academic subjects – or department is not necessarily the right place university, Lancaster, tops our charts in
Units of Assessment, as they are called. for all Master’s students to go. Those new linguistics, while in English language it is the
The main job of the REF is to provide to teaching or just looking to improve may post-92 University of Bedfordshire which,
information which will allow Government prefer a practical course with lots of hands-on thanks to its world-beating team at Centre for
research funds to be allocated to the strongest practice and will be much happier in a course Research in English Language Learning and
departments in each field. For would-be EFL run by teachers and trainers in a language Assessment that nosed ahead of the traditional
postgraduate students it also reveals which centre, and there are plenty of good ones. corpus giants at Birmingham, Nottingham and
departments in which universities offer the It is, of course, possible to combine the two, Liverpool to take top spot in English language.
most cutting-edge research and research- as is done in the Master’s courses jointly run by Remember, these are rankings of subjects
active teaching. It tells them who are the education departments and language centres in particular departments, not of universities
traditional powers and who are the rising stars at Nottingham, Glasgow and Sheffield Hallam, overall. And if you’re looking for a Master’s
in the three main Units of Assessments under all of which appear in our education ranking from our list you need to decide first what
which English language research falls: English starting on the opposite page. is your primary interest in English language
language, education and linguistics. There Of course, the scores under, say, English teaching. Is it English in particular, language
may also be ELT researchers submitting their language or linguistics do not just refer to the in general or teaching, and then you should
papers in other fields (neuroscience, perhaps, ELT staff. Indeed, in past REF-style exercises, know if your best bet is a department which
or psychology), in which case, can they please it was possible for researchers to not even does research in English language, linguistics
let us know. submit their research for assessment. But REF or education.
The Gazette uses the REF to produce lists 2021 stopped this, insisting that all staff with We have tried as hard as we can to track
of the university departments which have significant research responsibility submit some down all the departments offering an ELT
submitted ELT-related research in the order of their work for assessment. Over 76,000 staff related Master’s which submitted to the REF
that their results have been ranked by the submitted their research, 50% more than in in these three subjects. If we have left your
Times Higher Education (THE), which also 2014 when the last REF took place. department out, let us know. If you are angry
runs rankings of the world’s universities. Another major difference is the increase in at the weight given in our listings to impact
But for the REF, it is the subject areas covered the emphasis on the social and economic impact rather than research power, we apologise, but
by university departments that are important. of the research rather than just the power. That we depend on the boffins at the THE, who are
We cannot provide an overall ranking for the is, the total amount of researchers submitting much better at rankings than we are.
three academic areas covered, any more than and the total amount of research submitted. And, finally, congratulations to all the
we could produce a league table combining This has produced a revolution in the kind of universities listed here. Every last one of you
teams from football, cricket and cycling. university which is recognised as outstanding in has produced research which has been deemed
What we can show you is which departments an individual field. Although the elite research by REF experts as world ranking and/or
in which universities have ELT research universities who belong to the Russell Group internationally excellent, and you all offer great
deemed by the specialist experts from the REF still did well, the newer universities – be they Master’s. British ELT should be proud of you.
16 July 2022