The Royal Veterinary College’s RAE Results

18 December 2008
The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) is pleased to announce its overall profile in the RAE results as:

Research ranked 4*	Research ranked 3*	Research ranked 2*	Research ranked 1*
10%	45%	35%	5%

Professor Quintin McKellar, Principal of the Royal Veterinary College said:

”The Royal Veterinary College’s RAE return is a fantastic result. Overall the RVC is now ranked as England’s best school in the Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science unit of assessment, for institutions whose research is exclusively veterinary related. Additionally the RVC is now ranked 3rd out of a total of 30 other institutions in this unit of assessment.

”This outstanding achievement is terrific in the context of our submission of such a large number of academic staff (102.97 full time equivalents, which was 75% of our total academic staff). It is a phenomenal accomplishment for 55% of our submitted academics to be viewed as producing ’world class’ and ’internationally excellent’ research (4* and 3*).

”This positive result is indicative of the quantity and quality of research taking place at the RVC. When this is viewed in light of the RVC’s incredible growth since the last RAE return (we returned 67 fte academics in 2001, this year’s return is an increase of 54%), and the fact that some of the metrics favour organisations with a much more stable growth rate, it makes our success today all the more impressive.”

Notes for editors

It is important to note, however, that the RAE research profile does not totally reflect three important factors that are indicative of the College’s high research standing and overall contribution to the development of the UK’s veterinary and biomedical research function.
Since the last RAE return the RVC has been attracting an increasing amount of funding year on year; for the last 4 years (2005 – 8) the RVC has raised an average of £10m per annum in externally funded research grants. This has more than equalled the amount spent by the RVC on research within the 2001-2008 RAE period (£33.9m).
The RVC has been expanding its research function since the last RAE return, with an increase of 45 active research staff taking up positions during this time. A large percentage of these new researchers are young academics at the start of their career – a fact reflected by the RVC returning 37 30-40 year olds in this year’s submission, and that 28 of such staff had completed their PhD in the last 5 years. Much of the funding that new and younger researchers have recently attracted is yet to be spent, meaning that the RAE results do not reflect the full scope of the RVC’s research ability and potential.
A significant proportion of the number of academic researchers that we included in the return spend half their time, or more, providing clinical service (30%) and doing research involving the clinical caseload. The RAE methodology of assessment does not work successfully for those researching the clinical caseload – as their research assistants are residents rather than PhD students, who could not be included in the RAE return.
Additional figures:
- The RVC’s ’Quality index’ is: 44.4
- The RVC’s ’power index’ is: 44.4 x 102.97 = 4571.868
- The RVC is ranked as 9th out of 36 in the power rankings among specialist institutions
- The RVC is ranked as 13th out of 36 in the quality rankings among specialist institutions
- 60% of the RVC’s submission are are qualified vets
- The RVC returned 75% of its academics totalling 107 staff or 102.97 full time equivalents.
- Over the RAE period the RVC saw a net gain of 42 new staff

Further Information

To request further information or an interview please contact:

Hannah Murray on 01727 737997
email: hannah@communicationsmanagement.co.uk
Phil Smith on 01727 850761
email: phil@communicationsmanagement.co.uk