BU Achievements

Our Research

We are the fourth most improved University in the country for the quality of research, according to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008. As a result, we have tripled our core research funding.

The RAE confirmed that BU is producing research of a quality comparable with the very best in the world. A remarkable 80% of the areas assessed through the exercise at BU feature research rated as being of world-leading quality in terms of its originality, significance and rigour.

These include:

• Art and Design (incorporating Computer Animation);
• Communication, Culture and Media;
• Geography and Environmental Sciences;
• Nursing and Midwifery;
• General Engineering;
• Archaeology;
• Computer Sciences
• Business Management

Since 2006 we have appointed 150 new academics to accelerate the development of our existing and potential centres of excellence.

Our academic expertise in Conservation Sciences has resulted in three ground-breaking papers published in Science, one of the world’s most prestigious academic journals, during the first seven months of 2009:

• Professor Matthew Bennett with colleagues from the US and Africa, featured on the cover of Science following the discovery and analysis of hominin footprints in Kenya;
• Professor Ralph Clarke joined colleagues from the University of Oxford and the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Science following the reintroduction to the UK of the Large Blue butterfly;
• Professor Adrian Newton highlighted the environmental benefits of ecological restoration through a paper published in Science with colleagues from Spain and the CEH.

We have appointed nearly 100 fully-funded PhD students to strengthen our research environment and now have more University-funded research studentships than any other English university. One of our PhD students, Sally Keith, has published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society on the declining biodiversity in UK woodlands.

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• RAE 2008
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