Welcome to Birmingham City University and the start of your life as a postgraduate research student, a valued member of our vibrant research community. We recognise fully the commitment that you have made by choosing to study with us for a research degree, and we understand the support that you will need from our academic staff in faculties, our wider research community and our professional services teams to enable your success.
At BCU, we are committed to distinctive, original and rigorous research which discovers new knowledge and which delivers real-world benefits to society. Through your research and advanced practice you will discover new insights and know-how. By sharing your research outcomes effectively through publication, conference attendance and public and business engagement, your research has the potential to deliver meaningful societal, cultural and economic benefits on a local, national or even global scale. Increasingly, our research findings are being applied by others to address national and global challenges, through interdisciplinary research teams and international collaborations.
In the last UK-wide exercise to measure research quality, REF2021, 93% of our research was recognised internationally for originality, significance and rigour, of which 19% was judged world-leading. Our submission to REF2021 demonstrated how our research has been growing and in volume and quality and included 310 staff submitted to 14 subject areas. This is more than double the number of staff assessed by REF 2014, as more of our academic staff engage in impactful research of internationally recognised quality.
We are continuing our journey to further improve the quality and impact of our research; to grow our research community and enhance our research culture. We look forward to the valuable contributions that you will make.
We hope that you will enjoy being a part of our diverse and expanding research community and find your research degree programme to be a rewarding and challenging experience. In addition to gaining a much deeper understanding of your chosen subject area and discovering new knowledge, you will also develop a wide range of transferable skills that will set you up for your professional life beyond your PhD.
Please take the time to read the information in these Welcome pages, and the links therein, as it will help you settle into the University.
We wish you the very best of luck with your studies.
Dr Jenny Harding
Director of Research Innovation Gateway and Doctoral Research College