Strathclyde Law School performs strongly in Research Excellence Framework 2021

Strathclyde’s School of Law has performed strongly in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 – the UK Government’s system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. 

The School’s overall quality profile shows that 81% of our research is ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. 

According to the Times Higher Education’s analysis of the results, the School of Law is ranked 28th out of 69 submissions made in the Law Unit of Assessment, based on the grade point average of our overall quality profile.

This is up four places from REF 2014 and is third-highest in Scotland, reflecting the School’s continued commitment to recruiting and supporting high-quality academic staff to conduct excellent research, with our world leading outputs doubling in the period. 

In addition, the School’s impact submission performance exceeded the UK sector average, with 83% of our impact rated ‘outstanding’ or ‘very considerable’. 

This activity was bolstered by a supportive and diverse research environment, which was recognised by the REF 2021 Law Panel, who rated our environment submission 100% ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. 

An example of our research impact – work by Dr Genevieve Lennon, in collaboration with Dr Kath Murray at the University of Edinburgh, which led to improvements in Stop and Search practice by Police Scotland – can be found on the University’s REF 2021 webpages.