The School of Management is delighted to have been evaluated extremely positively by Research England as part of their Research Excellence Framework. Times Higher Education analysis has placed us 7th out of 108 submissions in the Business and Management Studies Panel.

Overall, 93% of our research has been rated as 3* and 4* meaning it is ‘internationally excellent’ and ‘world leading’. We are particularly pleased that our research environment has been ranked even higher, with 87.5% being awarded the highest rating of world leading.

Commenting on the results, Dean Professor Steve Brammer said:

I’m delighted that colleagues’ research has been recognised so positively in the REF 2021 outcomes. Our REF results reflect the hard work and expertise of our staff since 2014, and are a testament to their talent and commitment. I’m especially happy that 87.5% of the School’s research environment has been rated as being of world-leading standard, reflecting the School’s inclusive, collegiate and aspirational research culture.

Our research is a deeply embedded and longstanding element of our identity and values. Our research capability is strongly evident across early-career, mid-career, and senior academic positions and in all our academic fields and specialisms. We sustain the future of business and management research through our doctoral training and extensive support for early-career academics. We collaborate globally, provide leadership to international research communities, and develop global research networks. We attract research income from diverse sources and engage with corporate, social and public organisations to enrich and enliven our impact with non-academic audiences. For three decades, the School of Management has actively nurtured an inclusive, international and interdisciplinary research culture in which our academic staff generate intellectually ambitious and socially and economically purposeful outputs and outcomes.

We are proud that the impact of our research has been recognised – 93% of our impact has been graded as 4* / 3*, defined as world leading/internationally excellent. The impact of our research is seen across our divisions and research areas. It includes supporting our national health service, protecting people from cyber attacks, helping the world recover from the 2008 global financial crash through quantitative easing and early warning radar systems for future disasters, creating millions of pounds of investment in social enterprise and algorithms which solve complex logistics routing problems for companies.

Our REF outcome reflects a huge collective achievement by all members of our community – academics, professional members of staff, students, alumni and collaborators have played a part in this and we hope anyone with an affiliation to the School of Management feels a sense of pride in this accomplishment.