Civil Service rates University of Edinburgh as tenth most influential in Russell Group

The University of Edinburgh has come tenth in a survey of how research from Russell Group institutions influences work in the civil service.

The Dods Research Higher Education Index surveyed 1,120 civil servants on their interaction with, and awareness of Russell Group universities in the UK, identifying where, how and by whom research is being used, and its relative usefulness in civil servants' work.

It found research from the London School of Economics (LSE), University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and University College London had the largest impact on civil servants' day-to-day work.

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The University of Edinburgh was the highest rated Scottish institution, coming tenth in the list of Russell Group universities, largely because of the quality of its research.

Edinburgh University was rated seventh in the total list for the quality of its research, eighth for awareness of its research and in terms of how frequently it engaged with civil servants, and ninth for how often its research was used.

Meanwhile policy professionals are more likely to use research from London School of Economics (11 per cent), Cambridge (10 per cent) and Edinburgh (eight per cent).

The survey found the civil service considers the highest quality research to come from Cambridge University’s, with LSE and Oxford receiving very similar scores.

In general, civil servants had low awareness of the research outputs of all universities on the list, even the best-performing institutions.

The results did not show evidence that civil servants favour their alma mater’s publications above others.

To access further details on the result findings contact Keith Donington at keith.donington@dods.co.uk