Research
The University is committed to providing opportunities and
widening participation with vocationally focused curricula relevant to a
national and international audience. This focus involves three interlocking
activities; teaching, research and knowledge transfer.
The University has gained national
recognition for its achievements in widening participation and teaching. It is
gaining increasing regional and national recognition for the quality of its
research and its knowledge transfer work with small and medium-sized companies.
The University has established eight Research Institutes These institutes act to focus the research output
of university staff, to increase and support research quality and to help to
communicate more widely research achievements.
The Research Institutes are supported
by the Research Graduate
School which coordinates the quality assurance and
administrative arrangements for all students on research degree programmes.
Research Excellence
- Commended by the 2008 RAE for our world-leading research in Earth
Systems and Environmental Science, Communications, Cultural and
Media Studies, Social Work, Social Policy and Administration, Sport, Tourism and Leisure, and English Language and Literature.
- Funding for research is set to double following the successful performance in the 2008 RAE.
- Award-winning research in Climate Change and Applicable Computing
- Recognised as "internationally excellent" in the areas of Computer Science and Informatics; and Business and Management Studies.
- The 2003 QAA assessment of Business and Management courses
confirmed that "student learning is clearly underpinned by high-quality,
research-led teaching".
- And the last QAA audit report (2002) acknowledges our
"strong record of achievement in QAA subject reviews".
- The Government has chosen the University as a Centre for Excellence
in Teaching and Learning in 2005, and awarded us £3.3m in recognition of our
outstanding work in helping and supporting student learning.
- A
study commissioned to global management
consulting firm, Arthur D. Little by 35 UK universities
suggests that (new) universities including Bedfordshire, which receive the
least government funding, are significantly better than others at uncovering
additional research income from other sources.
- The Guardian also
acknowledges our success in research, placing us top among UK universities for
“research power”, based on Government statistics from 2003. The statistics show
that the University provides the best value for money for research.
