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Institutions in the ¡°golden triangle¡± and members of the Russell Group have seen a drop in their overall share of quality-related grant funding in England, while several post-92 universities have performed strongly in the first allocations to use the results of the latest Research Excellence Framework.

In the grants for 2022-23, announced by Research England on 4 August, Northumbria 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ¡¯s QR funding increased from just under ?7 million last year to more than ?18 million in total. This represented the biggest increase for any institution in terms of overall QR ¡°market share¡±, with Northumbria netting 0.93 per cent of the total pot, up 0.5 percentage points, reflecting the institution¡¯s strong performance in the REF.

Other modern institutions also receive big increases in funding, with Manchester Metropolitan 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ getting an extra ?6 million ¨C a 92 per cent increase ¨C which meant it improved its market share by 0.24 percentage points to 0.65 per cent.

Among other institutions increasing their market share by more than 0.1 per cent, adding millions to their research budgets, are Bournemouth, Coventry, Kingston, Huddersfield and Nottingham Trent universities, alongside the universities of Brighton, Essex, Greenwich, Hertfordshire, Lincoln and Portsmouth.

The allocations are seen as reflecting in part the redrawn methodology of the 2021 REF, under which all staff with ¡°significant responsibility¡± for research had to be entered, severely curtailing institutions¡¯ ability to select which academics participated and reducing the number of outputs per scholar that had to be submitted. The reduction in selectivity is perceived to have resulted in recognition for pockets of research excellence that may have been overlooked in the past.

Golden triangle institutions and their Russell Group peers will still get the largest grants, with the funding allocations reflecting institutional scale as well as REF performance. The funding formula continues to take account only of research rated 4* and 3* in the REF, with the former given quadruple weighting.

And most institutions generally enjoy an increase in their funding because of a 10 per cent?increase in Research England¡¯s total QR budget?pot to ?1.97 billion.

But those in the golden triangle will get less as a percentage of the overall amount, with the broader spread of funding meaning that modern universities¡¯ gains generally came at the expense of the Russell Group.

Research powerhouse UCL is the biggest loser on this measure. While it will receive a 10 per cent increase in its budget, bringing in a total of ?160 million ¨C the second highest after the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Oxford¡¯s ?164 million ¨C its market share decreases from 8.93 per cent to 8.06 per cent.

Similarly, the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Cambridge¡¯s market share is down by 0.61 percentage points while Oxford¡¯s drops 0.57 percentage points. King¡¯s College London sees a decline of 0.21 percentage points, while Imperial College London fares the best of the institutions considered part of the golden triangle, with only a 0.06 percentage point fall.

It means that overall the golden triangle¡¯s total share of the QR budget has fallen from 35.36 per cent to 33.05 per cent.

For the Russell Group¡¯s 21 English members, the overall share of funding declined 2.71 percentage points, dropping below 70 per cent to 68.21 per cent.

The 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Exeter bucked the trend among the elite institutions and added 0.26 percentage points to its market share, one of the biggest increases overall, while the universities of Liverpool and York also performed strongly. The 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Southampton will lose 0.35 percentage points of market share while Nottingham loses a quarter of a percentage point.

The London School of Economics will receive less funding in 2022-23 compared with 2021-22 ¨C despite the overall budget increase ¨C with a drop in its QR funding from ?18.4 million to ?16.7 million.

The Universities of Bedfordshire and Bolton will also see budgets decrease alongside some specialist institutions such as the Courtauld Institute of Art and the Royal Academy of Music.

David Sweeney, the departing executive chair of Research England, said it was ¡°good to see universities of very different kinds across the country doing well in a research assessment that captures quality of very different kinds¡±.

He said the organisation¡¯s allocations ¡°recognise the strength, depth and breadth of the English HE sector and this funding aims to ensure continued contribution from universities in England to delivering benefits for all¡±.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com