Meanwhile, Steve West, chair of University Alliance, said that the question of how university research is funded is “critical” at a time when public spending is under scrutiny.“Previous funding decisions have been right to seek out and fund the teams doing leading research rather than picking winners at an institutional level,” he said. The best way to maintain the UK’s global standing as a research nation is to continue funding excellence “wherever it is found”, he argued.
Our chair, Professor Steve West, has been quoted in media coverage of the Research Excellent Framework exercise 2014 in Times Higher Education.
The story suggests that the increase in the proportion of academic research classed as world-leading or internationally excellent has reopened the debate about how quality-related funding is distributed.
Read our full statement and coverage of Alliance universities’s REF results here.
Further reading
-
My journey from student to successful entrepreneur, revolutionising health and safety in construction and engineering
My name is Andrei Feraru, and today I own a Coventry-based business called Feraru Dynamics with my brother Vlad. My journey from undergraduate student to entrepreneur began while on placement…
-
My speech in parliament: highlighting the crucial role of doctoral training programmes and Alliance universities
“On the 11th of March 2025, I was fortunate to be invited to represent both the University Alliance’s (UA) Doctoral Training Alliance Programme (DTA) and Teesside University at a parliamentary…
-
Briefing: international students at Alliance universities
This briefing examines the drivers behind growth in the number of international students studying at Alliance universities in recent years, and the decline we have seen since 2023.