Our outstanding contribution to the field has been recognised by assessors in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
Our research was submitted with the Department of Government to the Politics and International Studies Unit of Assessment. 57.7 percent of the research outputs for this Unit were rated 'world-leading' and a further 33.3 percent were rated ‘internationally excellent’.
Impact case studies for the Politics and International Studies Unit of Assessment were awarded 100 percent 4 star and 3 star grades. The Research Environment also received 100 percent 4 star and 3 star grades.
REF Impact Case Study
Professor John Sidel, Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics jointly in the Government Department has produced an Impact Case Study entitled Promoting policy reforms in the Philippines by Thinking and Working Politically in development.
His research has made a significant contribution to the Coalitions for Change (CfC) programme in the Philippines, by shaping its understanding of the political context for policy reform advocacy, advising on tactics and strategy, making decisive interventions on specific reform initiatives, and drawing lessons from successes and failures.
His research has also shown the importance of identifying constellations of interests - and building coalitions - stretching across government agencies, congress, business, and civil society in order to overcome resistance to reform from among the political elite and the oligarchy. CfC has successfully promoted reforms in disaster risk reduction, education, electoral processes, healthcare, land governance, public transportation and infrastructure, and tax policy.
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Our ground-breaking work also generates high levels of public interest, a fact reflected in its frequent coverage by national and international media. It responds to that interest through an extensive programme of public lectures, attracting high-profile speakers from academia such as Anne Applebaum and John Mearsheimer, and practitioners of international relations such as London Assembly Member Sakina Sheikh, and Ziyanda Stuurman of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab in South Africa.
Read more about LSE REF 2021
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More about REF
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system by which the UK’s higher education funding bodies assess the quality of research in publicly funded UK higher education institutions (HEIs). REF 2021 comprised three elements:
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academic outputs, comprising a portfolio based on the FTE of REF-eligible staff submitted;
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research impact, submitted as a number of impact case studies (ICSs) in proportion to the total FTE of REF-eligible staff submitted;
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research environment, comprising the total number of research degrees awarded between 2014 and 2020, total research income received over the same time period, and an environment statement detailing how the submitting unit(s) supported research and impact over the period.
Outputs, impact and environment were weighted 60:25:15 respectively. All three elements were graded on a scale from 0 (unclassified) to 4* (world leading) and the results were published as quality profiles showing the percentage of outputs, impact and environment considered to meet each of the starred levels. Submissions were invited to 34 Units of Assessment (UoAs); LSE made 15 submissions to 13 UoAs across the SHAPE subjects.
For REF2021, HEIs were required to submit research outputs by all eligible members of staff. Each submitted member of staff could submit between one and five outputs, with the total number of outputs per UoA calculated as total FTE of staff multiplied by 2.5.
Staff were eligible for REF2021 where they were on a teaching-and-research or research-only contract of at least 0.2 FTE on 31 July 2020 and had a substantive connection to the submitting HEI. Research-only staff also had to be classified as independent researchers. HEIs were also required to identify which eligible staff had significant responsibility for research. LSE submitted 100% of its staff meeting these definitions, but other HEIs had eligible staff who did not have significant responsibility for research and hence had a submission rate of less than 100%.
Full glossary of REF terminology