Research quality is more evenly distributed across the UK than funding or output, according to an analysis of performance by distance from the capital, suggesting that the London-Cambridge-Oxford golden triangle is “no more golden” than other regions’ research and may benefit from “toxic cultural bias”.
A report on the role of regional research in levelling up, published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) on 18 January, finds that about half of total UK research funding reported to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) went to institutions within a 140km radius of London.
However, when looking at the cumulative total grade point average (GPA) scores awarded by peer panels in the REF, a measure of research quality, these are “more evenly distributed with distance from Westminster than is output”, the authors find.
Looking at cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) as distance from London increases against REF 2021 GPA also suggests that “GDP is benefitting from research excellence at about the same rate throughout the country”.
