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 24 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 2010/11, the 24 Russell Group universities accounted for:
- 72% (over £3.2 billion) of UK universities’ research grant and contract income
- 74% (over £1.1 billion) of total income from the Research Councils
- 66% (over £1.2 billion) of the total quality-related research funding (QR) allocated by the Funding Councils
- 80% (over £0.7 billion) of funding for research from UK charities
- 61% (12,325) of all doctorates awarded in the UK
Representing just 15% of the higher education sector, two-thirds of the UK’s very best (‘world leading’) research takes place in the Russell Group's 24 universities.
In 2010, the Russell Group’s then-20 universities were a prominent UK and international industry in their own right, with:
• a total economic output of £22.3 billion per annum
• responsibility for supporting 243,000 jobs UK-wide
• overseas earnings of over £2 billion per annum