Investigating the relationship between research income and research excellence in education: evidence from REF2021-UoA23 data

Boeren, E. (2023) Investigating the relationship between research income and research excellence in education: evidence from REF2021-UoA23 data. British Educational Research Journal, (doi: 10.1002/berj.3899) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses the relationship between the generation of research income and the REF2021 results for universities who submitted a return to Unit of Assessment 23—Education. Research Excellence Framework exercises tend to be time intensive and come with income streams of Government Quality Research funding as well as reputational gains and risks. Based on REF2021 research environment research income data, freely available on the REF2021 website, analyses have been undertaken to investigate the strength of relationships between different types of fundings streams and grade point averages. The results demonstrate strong variation in funding capture across the different universities with Russell Group members tending to generate more income from prestigious funders such as UK Research and Innovation. However, several post-1992 universities managed to capture significant income from funders like UK and EU governments, without this necessarily translating into higher grade point averages or 4* scores. While generating research income is perceived as an important part of academic life, the paper concludes that achieving research excellence seems more complicated than just following the money.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Boeren, Professor Ellen
• Authors: Boeren, E.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Journal Name: British Educational Research Journal
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0141-1926
• ISSN (Online): 1469-3518
• Published Online: 07 August 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Author
• First Published: First published in British Educational Research Journal 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License