Black, female, and disabled academics were less likely to be entered for REF 2021

Academic staff who were female, black or disabled were less likely to be submitted for assessment in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), new analysis has found. The findings appear to reflect entrenched issues with inequality and underrepresentation in the higher education sector.

The REF’s equality and diversity advisory panellooked at which staff were picked out of all eligible staff and had significant responsibility for research, the number of outputs attributed to each person and the assessed quality of outputs.