2008 RAE Highlights

The Department of Geography has again achieved a top ranking within UK Geography, consolidating its now well-established national and international reputation as a leading centre in its discipline.  The Department is in the top tier of Geography departments - in joint 9th position - in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), with 65% of our research either ‘world-class’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

Our 5* performance in RAE2001 has been rewarded by significant growth in academic staff numbers (and relatively low turnover), enabling a quantum leap in the level and calibre of our performance. This is reflected in the distribution of international excellence across all four research groups, the Centre for Quaternary Science, Centre for Developing Areas Research, Politics and Environment Research Group, and Social and Cultural Geography Group. Although details of the breakdown will be released next month, we are confident that our overall score reflects real achievement under all three headings, research outputs, research environment and esteem.

Professor David Simon, Head of the Geography Department, commented: “We are delighted by this outcome, which reflects our focused research strategy and selective investment by the College.  We have maintained our top ranking, consolidating our well-established national and international reputation as a leading centre in both human and physical Geography.”

Particular highlights include:

A 63% increase in Category A staff, from 20 to 32.65 FTE, reflecting initiatives in four key areas: sustainability, Pleistocene and environmental archaeology, postcolonial studies, and political theory.

The dramatic increase in the number of PGR students to 191 fulltime and 62 part-time over the assessment period, with 48 PhDs awarded – almost all within the 4-year norm. 76 of the students obtained studentships, of which fully 37 (49%) were from UK research councils or the Office of Science and Innovation. A further 19.5 (26 %) were funded by RHUL and 10 (13 %) by students themselves. Moreover, our research training Master’s programmes have provided a fertile recruitment ground for PhD students – approximately 50% over the period.

A doubling of research income over the period, from £1.99 million in RAE 2001 to £4.24 million, and this was derived from a healthy diversity of sources. The largest proportions (£1.443mn or 34%) was won from ‘gold standard’ RCUK/OSI sources, followed by £967k or 23% from Other UK government bodies, £797 or 18% from UK-based charities, and £693k or 16% from the EU. This Department is distinctive in obtaining funding from no fewer than four research councils (ESRC, NERC, AHRC, EPSRC, as well as the British Academy). On a relative basis per FTE member of staff, these data reflect particularly well on RHUL.

Knowledge transfer from the university to other bodies and the wider society is an active departmental policy. This involves dynamic partnerships for research, postgraduate training and dissemination activities with museums (e.g. Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of London), English Heritage, Natural England, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research’s Challenge Programme on Water and Food, UN agencies, the World Bank and World Economic Forum, and NGOs such as Streetchild Africa and Wateraid.

Research highlights:

» Environment – CEDAR, CQR, PERG and SCG research groups

» ICT4D capacity building and e-learning through partnerships with African higher education institutions (Prof Tim Unwin, EU and British Council funding)

» Quaternary Science: NERC-funded RAPID programme on high resolution and long-term multi-proxy reconstruction of palaeo-environmental change (Profs John Lowe and Jim Rose);  Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) (Dr Ian Candy, Prof Jim Rose, Dr. Danielle Schreve, Prof Chris Stringer); NERC-funded RESET consortium (RHUL, Oxford, Nat History Museum and NOCS) on Responses of Humans to Rapid Environmental Change (£3.4 mn from 2008) (Profs John Lowe, Clive Gamble, Chris Stringer); Inca ushnus in Peru (Prof. Rob Kemp, Dr. Katie Willis, Dr Nick Branch – AHRC).

» PERG: Geopolitics and Film (Prof K Dodds); transboundary governance and identity issues in the EU (Dr Luiza Bialasiewicz)

» Social and Cultural Geography:  European visions of the tropical world (Prof Felix Driver, AHRC), London’s place among fashion’s world cities (Prof David Gilbert,  AHRC, ESRC); Indian textiles and diasporic visual cultures (Prof Phil Crang, Prof Felix Driver, Helen Scalway, AHRC), colonial re-enactments in Morocco (Prof Claudio Minca);