Highlights for the School of Sociology’s research in REF2021

We are delighted with our recent performance in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021).

REF2021 performance highlights of our research in UoA 21 Sociology:

• 97% of the research outputs in UoA 21 Sociology was judged to be ‘world-leading’ (4*) or ‘internationally excellent’ (3*) which was the highest of any UK HEI in this unit (out of 37 HEIs)
• 84% of our research was judged to be ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’
• 75% of the real-world impact of our research judged to be ‘very considerable’ (3*)

The Research Excellence Framework is the UK’s system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. REF2021 results were announced on Thursday 12 May 2022, you can find more details on the University’s overall performance.

Times Higher Education (THE) analyse the results of REF2021 and rank each institution according to their performance.