Russell Group

The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to government and Parliament. It was incorporated in 2007. Its members are often perceived as being the UK's best universities, which has been widely disputed.
Russell Group members receive over three-quarters of all university research grant and contract income in the United Kingdom. Russell Group members award 60% of all doctorates gained in the United Kingdom. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, Russell Group universities accounted for 65% of all world-leading research conducted in the UK, and 91% of the Russell Group's research was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent. In the 2023 Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework, of the 20 English Russell Group universities which were assessed, 7 hold gold awards and 13 silver. This compares to proportions across 128 higher education institutions of which 29% hold gold, 62% silver, and 9% bronze. Their graduates hold 61% of all UK jobs that require a university degree, despite being only 17% of all higher education graduates.
The Russell Group is named after the location of the first informal meetings of the Group, which took place at the Hotel Russell in Russell Square, London.

History

The Russell Group of universities was formed in 1994 by 17 British research universities – Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College London, Leeds, Liverpool, London School of Economics, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, University College London and Warwick, who originally met at Hotel Russell shortly before meetings of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals in nearby Tavistock Square, close to the University of London buildings and, particularly, Senate House. With the exception of Warwick, the founder members of the group were all universities or university colleges prior to World War I, including most of Britain's ancient universities and "redbrick universities". In 1998, Cardiff University and King's College London joined the group.
In March 2001, the Russell Group decided against selecting a preferred option for the future funding of higher education, stating that endowments, a graduate contribution, increased public funding and top-up fees should all remain options. In December 2005, it was announced that the Russell Group would be appointing its first full-time director-general as a result of a planned expansion of its operations, including commissioning and conducting its own policy research. In November 2006, Queen's University Belfast was admitted as the twentieth member of the group. In the same month Wendy Piatt, the then deputy director in the Prime Minister's strategy unit, was announced as the group's new Director General and chief executive.
In March 2012, it was announced that four universities – Durham, Exeter, Queen Mary University of London; and York – would become members of the Russell Group in August of the same year. All of the new members had previously been members of the 1994 Group of British universities.
In January 2013, it was announced that the Russell Group would establish an academic board to advise the English exams watchdog Ofqual on the content of A-Levels. In 2019, the group launched the website "Informed Choices" to advise school children on which A-level subject choices were useful for various degree courses, replacing an earlier teachers' guide of the same name from 2011 that had identified a list of "facilitating subjects'.

Organisation

Objectives

The Russell Group states that "its aim is to help ensure that our universities have the optimum conditions in which to flourish and continue to make social, economic and cultural impacts through their world-leading research and teaching".
It works towards this by lobbying the UK government and parliament; commissioning reports and research; creating a forum in which its member institutions can discuss issues of common concern; and identify opportunities for them to work together.

Leadership

The Russell Group is led by Chief Executive Tim Bradshaw and chaired by Chris Day, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle.

Name	Dates	Institution
Colin Lucas	2000–2003	Oxford
Michael Sterling	2003–2006	Birmingham
Malcolm Grant	2006–2009	UCL
Michael Arthur	2009–2012	Leeds
David Eastwood	2012–2015	Birmingham
David Greenaway	2015–2017	Nottingham
Anton Muscatelli	2017–2020	Glasgow
Nancy Rothwell	2020–2023	Manchester
Chris Day	2023–2026	Newcastle

Members

The Russell Group currently has twenty-four members, of which twenty are from England, two from Scotland, and one from each of Wales and Northern Ireland. Of the English members, five are from Greater London; three from the Yorkshire and the Humber region; two from each of the North East, North West, West Midlands, South West and South East regions; and one from each of the East Midlands and East regions. Four Russell Group members are constituent colleges of the University of London and a fifth London institution, Imperial College London, was part of the University of London until 2007.
The table below gives the members of the group, along with when they joined, their student and staff numbers, and their latest Teaching Excellence Framework overall rating.

University	Nation	Year of joining	Undergraduate students	Postgraduate students	Total students	Total academic staff	TEF award
	England	1994	25,150	12,840	37,990	3,195	Silver†
	England	1994	23,055	8,425	31,485	2,830	Silver
	England	1994	13,645	8,960	22,610	4,935	Gold*
	Wales	1998	23,765	10,220	33,985	2,540
	England	2012	17,395	4,835	22,230	1,745	Silver
	Scotland	1994	26,000	15,245	41,250	4,200
	England	2012	23,755	8,710	32,465	2,320	Gold*
	Scotland	1994	23,460	19,520	42,980	3,155
	England	1994	11,740	9,730	21,470	3,715	Gold
	England	1998	23,225	18,270	41,490	3,850	Silver
	England	1994	27,015	10,175	37,190	3,040	Silver†
	England	1994	22,265	6,415	28,680	2,440	Gold
^‡	England	1994	5,575	7,400	12,975	1,095	Silver
	England	1994	30,900	15,505	46,410	4,195	Silver
	England	1994	20,760	6,520	27,280	2,525	Silver†
	England	1994	28,690	8,570	37,260	2,870	Silver
	England	1994	15,685	11,610	27,290	6,005	Gold*
^‡	England	2012	17,430	8,615	26,045	2,065	Silver†
	N. Ire.	2006	17,970	7,325	25,295	1,775
	England	1994	20,040	10,820	30,860	2,855	Silver
	England	1994	15,110	8,685	23,795	2,060	Silver
	England	1994	23,800	23,030	46,830	6,460	Silver
	England	1994	18,955	9,870	28,825	2,270	Gold*
	England	2012	15,350	8,070	23,420	1,810	Gold

Notes:
^‡ Member institution of the University of London, awarding its own degrees

^* Achieved 'Gold' rating in all three categories of the assessment

^† Achieved overall 'Silver' rating with one category rated 'Bronze'

Status

Research

In 2022/23, following the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, the English universities of the Russell Group saw their share of recurring research funding from Research England drop by 2.71 percentage points from the 2021/22 funding to 68.21 per cent, although most institutions saw a rise in actual funding levels due to an overall increase in funding. The top 19 English institutions in terms of funding continued to all be from the Russell Group, with the top 20 being rounded off, as before, by Lancaster. The LSE was, as in previous REF rounds, the exception, ranking 31st in terms of funding and seeing a nine per cent fall in its allocation.
In 2015/16, following the 2014 REF, the 19 English universities with HEFCE research funding allocations in excess of £20 million were all members of the Russell Group. The only English Russell Group institution to receive an allocation below £20 million was the LSE, which ranked 22nd behind the Universities of Leicester and Lancaster.
In 2010/11, 19 of the 20 UK universities with the highest income from research grants and contracts were members of the Russell Group. In terms of total research funding allocations from the Higher Education Funding Council for England in 2007/8, the top 15 universities were all Russell Group institutions. LSE was 21st, due to its focus on less costly social sciences research. Queen's University Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and Edinburgh, were not included in this table, as they are not English institutions. The Russell Group institutions received 82% of the total HEFCE research funding allocation.
The research funding figures depend on factors other than the quality of research, in particular there are variations due to institutional size and subject spread.
In 2008, 18 of the then 20 members were positioned in the top 20 of Research Fortnight's Research Assessment Exercise 'Power' Table. The other two places were occupied by Durham University and Queen Mary University of London, which were not then Russell Group members but have since joined. The two Russell Group institutions outside the top 20 were QUB and the LSE, while the other two universities to have since joined were York and Exeter. In the equivalent table for the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, the 24 Russell Group members occupied the top 24 positions, with the University of Lancaster in 25th being the highest-ranked non-Russell Group university.