IGES in top 12 for research
18 December 2008
IGES has been ranked in the top 12 Geography departments in Britain in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.
The results of the RAE, which have been published today, rate 20% of research activity in IGES as 'world-leading' and 65% as either 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent'.
According to the league table published by the Times Higher, Aberystwyth is now ranked joint 11th in Britain for research in Geography on the overall profile of research activity. The analysis also confirms Aberystwyth's status as the top Geography department in Wales and reveals it to be the highest-ranked Geography department outside England.
The Director of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Professor Michael Woods, has congratulated staff in the Institute on the result and commented: "This is an excellent RAE result that confirms that IGES is a world-leader in research in Geography and the Earth Sciences, but that also demonstrates the strength in depth across the Institute, with all academic staff engaged in work that is internationally-recognised for its quality."
He continued: "Combined with our outstanding result in the 2008 National Student Survey, in which we were ranked top for overall student satisfaction in both Human Geography and Physical Geography, the RAE result demonstrates our unique standard of excellence across both teaching and research. IGES is exceptional in offering undergraduate and postgraduate students teaching of the highest quality in a vibrant research-led environment with staff who have been independently verified as world-leaders in their field."
The full RAE 'quality profile' for IGES is:
4* (world-leading research) 20%
3* (internationally excellent research) 45%
2* (internationally recognised research) 30%
1* (nationally recognised research) 5%
Unclassified 0
Full results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise can be found at: www.rae.ac.uk
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