Cardiff pockets gold

The sound of champagne glasses clinking in the background when Cardiff picked up the phone was a good indication that the university is pleased with its RAE results.

Now, if there’s one phrase that has been overused in the 48-hour scrum for quotes that has so far constituted the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, it’s "pockets of excellence."

HEFCE has used the phrase at every opportunity as a way to describe just how great the new RAE system is at recognising all the different types of research that have been allowed to shine under the new assessment model.

But, buzz phrase or not, does Theresa Rees, pro-vice chancellor for research at Cardiff, feel that her institution is one of the universities that could really benefit from this ‘pockets’ approach?

"We’ve always been a university that’s interested in research-based teaching and evidence-based policy for quite a lot of subjects, like sociology and business," she says. "Maybe the system does allow that type of research, particularly its impact, to be valued more than it has been in previous times. I think that is where we are particularly strong."

Cardiff University, Wales’ only Russell Group member, scored highly in a number of areas, but particularly in what Rees terms "professionally oriented" disciplines, such as civil engineering. In this area, 65 per cent of Cardiff’s researchers were rated 3* and 25 per cent 4*. Other areas of excellence were psychiatry and psychology.

Rees says she welcomes the recognition of policy-oriented work, which is particularly important to Cardiff. "We are close to the Assembly Government and were interested in informing the way in which they develop policy," says Rees. "The government is now much more interested in the impact of its resources and we’re in a particularly good position to show some interesting results in that sense."