REF2021 at the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences – by the numbers

Posted on: 12 May 2022 by Nick Jones in 2022 Posts

With the results of REF2021 released last week (12 May), the Faculty of Humanities of Social Sciences was pleased to see an outstanding set of results from across all the Units of Assessment (UoAs) we submitted. But what does that look like in terms of inputs and rewards?

From Archaeology to Social Work & Social Policy, the work of our researchers was consistently recognised by the REF panels as being world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (4*), with every UoA having something they can, quite rightly be proud of.

You can see the top headlines and results for all of our Units of Assessments here.

But a REF submission doesn’t happen overnight (no matter how much we wished it did!). It is the result of years of hard work and commitment from colleagues across the Faculty and beyond. To give you an idea of just how much was involved, we’ve pulled together a few interesting stats.

The Humanities & Social Sciences REF2021 submission process involved:

• 488 researchers
• 110 ECRs (22.5% of submissions)
• 1077 Outputs
• 44 Impact Case Studies
• 12 Environment statements
• 293 pages and 114,808 words!

And after all that effort, our results show it was definitely worthwhile. Our Faculty has seen:

• 60% increase in 4* overall
• 55% increase in 4* outputs
• 89% increase in 4* impact
• 57% increase in 4* environment
• Grade Point Average (GPA): 11% increase overall (ranges from 3 to 3.5 out of 4)

We have been particularly strong in impact, with 10 of our 12 units placing in the top 25% for impact.

Everyone in Humanities and Social Sciences, no matter what their role is, contributes towards this: the success we celebrate today is a truly collective success which every one of us can be proud of.

We would, however, like to especially thank our ECR colleagues. Their outstanding contribution to this REF, and our subsequent success, cannot be overstated. Over 20% of our submissions came from the ECR cohort, so you can be justly proud of your achievements.

Well done to everyone involved, and a massive ‘thank you’ from the Research & Impact team for all your support in helping us wrangle these numbers to such a wonderful result.

Read more about the University of Liverpool’s REF success here.