School of Management research excellence

Over 88% of research carried out by the School of Management at the University of St Andrews is world-leading or internationally excellent, according to the results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) published in May 2022.

The REF – a detailed analysis of the research strengths of all UK universities – found that St Andrews excelled in a number of key research areas, including Management.

Research which focussed on financial cooperatives (credit unions), evidence-based policy and small and medium-sized enterprises were considered to demonstrate impacts of outstanding or very considerable research impact, reach and significance. The REF 2021 results also revealed that 100% of the School's research environment was judged to be conducive to nurturing and producing 3* and 4* research. 

Professor Tobias Jung, Head of School said:

"The results demonstrate that research from the School is world-leading or internationally excellent with considerable reach and significance. In line with our research strategy, the School remains committed to producing world-class research that provides demonstrable benefits to society. We aspire to build on and expand our global reputation as an internationally leading management school that pursues high quality scholarship across our focused intellectual themes grounded in the social sciences – and under the overarching theme of responsible management."

REF found that the overall quality of research at St Andrews had increased by 5.7 % since the last assessment exercise in 2014.

St Andrews Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sally Mapstone FRSE said:

"The overall quality of our research has increased significantly since the last REF in 2014, we have cause to celebrate the achievements of several of our Schools whose research is rated amongst the best in the UK, and the fact that over 88% of the research we produce in this small corner of Fife has been held to be world-leading or internationally excellent is a remarkable achievement."

Although REF itself explicitly does not rank universities according to research strengths, the metrics it produces are widely used in the higher education sector and in the media to benchmark research performance.

According to these figures, using the method of Grade Point Average (GPA), St Andrews was ranked 3rd in Scotland and 28th in the UK, one of six Scottish universities ranked amongst the top 50 research institutions in the UK.

Full details of the Research Excellence Framework 2021 is available on the REF website.

See more results at University of St Andrews REF 2021.