School of History & Heritage
An extraordinary result
by Dr Ian Packer
Director of Research, Lincoln School of History and Heritage
The results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) were published on 12 May. This is an evaluation of all the research produced in the UK’s higher education institutions over the period 2013-2020. It’s organised by Research England and its equivalents in the devolved nations – the organisations that oversee Universities’ research. The REF is incredibly important in providing us at Lincoln with a way of measuring how much our staff have achieved through their publications, impact activities, grant capture, supporting the completion of postgraduate research degrees, and creating a vibrant and sustainable environment in which to conduct research. Staff in every University are grouped into Units of Assessment (UoAs) and grades are awarded to these UoAs, with 4* being the highest. In the School of History and Heritage, the largest group of staff were in the History UoA, with others also submitted in Art and Design and Archaeology.
The grades awarded by REF allow UoAs in the same subject, such as History, in different Universities to be compared with each other.
The results for our School are amazing. The History UoA moved up from 49th in REF 2014 to 18th in REF 2021, out of 81 History UoAs across the UK. This means that History at Lincoln was ranked higher than History at the Universities of Bristol, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cambridge, Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle and our publications received the highest grade of any History UoA in the country!
In the Art & Design UoA (which included staff from Lincoln Conservation and Art History) we made an important move from 51st to 40th (out of 84 UoAs). In our first submission in Archaeology we produced a strong overall score of 2.64, despite submitting only 3 staff.
So – we should all have reason to be very proud and pleased that our hard work has been recognised. Most importantly, these results show what a very good School we are and that the research that we produce is truly excellent. All of these achievements, of course, have a direct impact on our students’ experience at Lincoln, ensuring they can be confident that they have direct access to and can share in some of the best research anywhere in the country.