Excellent results in Research Assessment Exercise for German at Leeds

Professor Frank Finlay, Director of Research, writes:

Today (18 December 2008) saw the publication of the results of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

The outcome of this process, which is an evaluation of the research carried out in the past seven years by every university department in the country, is vitally important to us on a number of different counts. The new knowledge we create in our research feeds directly into our curricula, the income we receive for doing so benefits all areas of the department, not least the learning and staffing resources we are able to provide. Success is, of course, important for the reputation and standing of a department and an institution in the wider world.

I am pleased to relate that the University of Leeds has done exceptionally well in the exercise, improving its national league table position very markedly. This improvement has also been achieved both across the Faculty of Arts and the School of Modern Languages.

As for German at Leeds, I am delighted to tell you that we are now ranked equal second in the country, as the league table below demonstrates:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2008/dec/18/rae-2008-german-dutch-scandinavian-languages

In the category of "world-leading research" German at Leeds scored the equal highest mark, confirming our status as one of the finest departments of German in the land.