Our REF 2021 Submission

It was a requirement that each institution submitting to REF 2021 developed a Code of Practice. This set out our approach to ensuring equality of opportunity in REF 2021 decision-making processes. The funding bodies that run the REF provided detailed guidance and a structured template for us to use.

Staff are encouraged to read the Code of Practice, but a summary of the key points is provided below.

Summary of Key Points

The University of Suffolk attended external consultation events provided by REF; CREST and AdvanceHE and provided internal training and consultation workshops across all Schools. 

Academic staff at the University of Suffolk with a significant responsibility for research from all levels - Lecturers, Research Fellows, Senior Lecturers, Associate Professors and Professors - are identified through being actively engaged in research in their discipline as defined as Category A Eligible staff in the guidance document for REF2021.

Note: Since REF 2021, the term "Category A staff" has been changed to "Staff with significant responsibility for research" (SRR). 

The criteria we used for staff to self- select and consider themselves as eligible were the same as set out in the REF 2021 Guidance in that: 

• Staff with significant responsibility for research are those for whom:
• ‘Explicit time and resources are made available’ with a specific proportion of time allocated for research, and research allocation in their workload. 
• ‘To be engaged actively in independent research’; eligible to apply for research funding as the lead or co-applicant and membership of research centres and research institutes. 
• ‘And that is an expectation of their job role’ and this is reflected in their career pathway and stated objectives and appraisals.

Academic staff at the University of Suffolk with research independence are identified through being actively engaged in research in their discipline as defined as Category A Eligible staff in the guidance document for REF2021. As such they are defined as academic staff with a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or greater whose primary employment function is to undertake either teaching and research or research only whereby research, is understood as a ‘process of investigation leading to new insights, effectively shared’ and who consider themselves to fulfil some of the criteria for research independence outlines above. A range of staff participated in the discussions that contributed to the selection of units of assessments for submission to REF 2021. These included the Vice Chancellor, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, School Deans and the Director of Research and School Research Leads. 

The University instituted a robust process of external review of the quality of all research outputs that were put forward by staff for consideration for REF2021. External reviewers were selected based on their scholarly standing, familiarity with the REF evaluation scale, and were independent from the University.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at researchoffice@uos.ac.uk, should you have any questions. 

Full document - Code of Practice 

Research outputs counted for 60 per cent of the overall quality rating for each Unit of Assessment (UoA) in REF 2021.

The established tariff, based on the number of FTE submitted to a UoA, calculates the number of outputs that must be submitted. For every 1.0 FTE submitted, 2.5 outputs were required which were on the basis of ‘Originality’, ‘Rigour’ and ‘Significance’. Twelve per cent of the University’s research outputs were rated as 4* quality that is world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour and 56% as 3* which are of a quality that is internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour.

For REF2021, Research England introduced an Open Access policy against which all journal articles and conference proceedings published since 1 April 2016 were required to be compliant, although some exceptions were possible. Our research outputs are available on OARS - Open Access Repository Suffolk, which is a digital archive of research outputs produced by University of Suffolk staff.

For the purposes of the REF 2021, impact was defined as an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond academia.

The Impact element of REF 2021 carried a weighting of 25 per cent of the overall assessment. The number of case studies required in each UoA submission was determined by the number (full-time equivalent) of staff returned in the submission. The University of Suffolk submitted 2 impact case studies to REF 2021 both of which were assessed at 3* and having considerable impact in terms of both reach and significance.

I.  Addressing Criminal and Sexual Exploitation of Young and Vulnerable People involved in “County Lines” Drug Distribution Networks.

II.  Sharing intimate images online –effectively responding to online sexual abuse and improving support for child victims.

The environment element of the REF 2021 counted for 15 per cent of the overall quality rating and was assessed in terms of a UoA’s 'vitality and sustainability', including its contribution to the vitality and sustainability of the wider discipline or research base during the assessment period (1 August 2013 to 31 July 2020).

All HEIs submitting to the REF were required to return a single institutional level (IL) environment statement in addition to an environment template for each submitting unit they were returning to the REF. The REF sub-panels used the information provided in the IL statement to inform and contextualise their assessment of the relevant sections of the unit-level template.

Since the 2021 submission, the University has invested well over a £1M to transform its research environment and infrastructure to lay the foundations for a significant submission into the next REF exercise.