Research at Russell Group universities
The UK research base is highly productive and has a global reputation for excellence: with just 1% of the world’s population, the UK earns 12% of international citations. This is seen as the acid test of whether research is being taken seriously.
The Russell Group represents the 20 major research-intensive universities of the UK. These institutions are vibrant and dynamic organisations, actively contributing to their local communities and economies, yet influencing and achieving impact on a truly global scale. By virtue of their size and the quality of their research and teaching, Russell Group universities create and catalyse a hugely diverse range of activity which has a major impact on the economy of the UK.
All this research activity creates a distinctive learning environment for students, where both undergraduates and post-graduates have access to academic staff who are involved in work at the cutting edge of their subjects as well as teaching.
In 2007/08, Russell Group universities accounted for:
- 66% (over £2.4 billion) of UK universities' research grant and contract income
- 68% of total income from the Research Councils
- 58% of all doctorates awarded in the United Kingdom
- over 30% of all students studying in the United Kingdom from outside the EU
Representing just 12% of the higher education sector, the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise found that over 60% of the UK’s very best (‘world leading’) research took place in Russell Group universities.
The size and extent of Russell Group universities makes them a prominent UK and international industry in their own right:
- They have a total economic output £25.3 billion per annum
- They are responsible for supporting 237,000 jobs UK-wide
- They are a major UK export industry, with overseas earnings of £3 billion per annum