Rating the United Kingdom's Architecture Schools as Researchers: preliminary 2009 results
The Good Oil
Every two years we rate the world's architecture schools on their research performance. Results for our 2009 survey of the research performance of the British architecture schools are shown here. For information on what these numbers mean, read this page. Can't find your school? Find out why.
You can also read why British architecture academics are pissing their pants at any sort of assessment of their performance.
Other assessments
The United Kingdom has conducted research audits of its universities since 1992. You should check out their results at the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 (RAE 2008) homepage.
We have included two other indicators:
- The Guardian University Guide average teaching score (published mid-2008 but labelled 2009)
- The Good University Guide overall score (mid-2009 ratings) from TimesOnline
The Teaching Quality Information provides further information, albeit in a difficult format. Finally British students should check out Will I See My Tutor, a site so scathing that the UK universities are threatening legal action. Read it before it gets shut down.
Current rankings
| University | Median Research Score (2009) | % of staff in the top quartile (2009) | Guardian University Guide (2008) | Times Good Universities Guide (2009) |
| Royal College of Art | 25 | 100 | – | – |
| University of Bath | 10 | 67 | 84 | 100 |
| University of Cambridge | 9 | 64 | 100 | 98 |
| University of Sheffield | 7 | 52 | 69 | 93 |
| University College London | 5 | 44 | 99 | 96 |
| Cardiff University | 4 | 48 | 85 | 100 |
| University of Liverpool | 3 | 39 | 72 | 86 |
| Oxford Brookes University | 3 | 35 | 69 | 85 |
| Queen's University of Belfast | 3 | 27 | 54 | 80 |
| University of Strathclyde | 3 | 21 | 61 | 86 |
| University of Newcastle upon Tyne | 2 | 35 | 75 | 89 |
| University of the West of England | 1 | 32 | 44 | 74 |
| University of Westminster | 1 | 28 | 48 | 75 |
| University of Greenwich | 1 | 42 | 42 | 63 |
| Kingston University | 1 | 24 | 41 | 73 |
| University of Nottingham | 1 | 16 | 74 | 95 |
| Glasgow School of Art | 1 | 30 | 67 | – |
| University College for the Creative Arts | 1 | 13 | – | – |
| London Metropolitan University | 0 | 24 | 35 | – |
| Liverpool John Moores University | 0 | 22 | 30 | 76 |
| London South Bank University | 0 | 16 | 33 | 70 |
| Sheffield Hallam University | 0 | 15 | 61 | 85 |
| Manchester School of Architecture | 0 | 15 | 70 | 91 |
| Northumbria University | 0 | 14 | 65 | 79 |
| Robert Gordon University | 0 | 13 | 45 | 74 |
| University of Kent | 0 | 9 | – | – |
| University of Ulster | 0 | 8 | 59 | 91 |
| University of Lincoln | 0 | 7 | 49 | 77 |
| Leeds Metropolitan University | 0 | 7 | 35 | 77 |
| University of Portsmouth | 0 | 6 | 45 | 79 |
| Nottingham Trent University | 0 | 0 | – | 76 |
| Birmingham City University | – | – | 48 | 64 |
| University of Huddersfield | – | – | 29 | 71 |
| University of Plymouth | – | – | 45 | 73 |
| University of East London | – | – | 41 | 76 |
| University of Brighton | – | – | 56 | 82 |
| De Montfort University | – | – | 53 | 83 |
| University of Dundee | – | – | 64 | 88 |
| Edinburgh College of Art | – | – | 74 | – |