RAE 2008 Results Out

The RAE 2008 (Research Assessment Exercise for British Universities, 2008) results are out today (HT: James Crossley):

RAE 2008

The means of representing the results is different from previous RAEs, where each department was given just one number, from 1 to the coveted 5*. This time, it appears that the number of active researches is given, along with a number representing the percentage of research activity in each of four major categories, from 4 (world leaders) to 1 (national quality) as well as unclassified (see Quality Profiles). The results for departments of Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies are here:

Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies

You have to do a bit of work with the results to work out how well everyone has done, but it looks to me like Durham is the clear winner in this category, with a whopping 40% in the 4 (world leader) category, and 20 in the 3 (internationally excellent) category. Next up are, I would say, Cambridge with 35% at 4 and 25% at 3, Oxford with 30% at 4 and 35% at 3, University College London with 30% at 4 and 40% at 3, then Edinburgh with 30% at 4 and 30% at 3. Manchester has 25% at 4 and 45% at 3; Sheffield has 20% at 4 and 45% at 3. My old University, Birmingham, has an honorable 15% at 4 and 45% at 3, a little below Nottingham with 20% at 4 and 40% at 3 and Aberdeen, with 15% at 4 and 65% at 3. I think that by these very rough indicators, weighing 4s more highly than 3s, and looking at the number of 4s and 3s together, this makes the top ten something like this:

1. Durham
2. Cambridge
3. University College London
4. Oxford
5. Edinburgh
6. Manchester
7. Sheffield
8. Nottingham
9. Aberdeen
10. Birmingham

I haven't "done the math" here, though by crunching in the numbers from all the categories, so this is a very rough indication.

After doing those rough calculations, I looked at the Guardian's ranked list, which comes out like this, with a radical difference with respect to Aberdeen; SOAS is higher and Birmingham lower:

RAE 2008: theology, divinity and religious studies results:

1. Durham
2. Aberdeen
3. Cambridge
4. Oxford
5. University College London
6. Manchester
7. Sheffield
8. Nottingham
9. Edinburgh
10. SOAS