Queen Mary’s excellence in knowledge exchange recognised

The KEF system assesses the quality of knowledge exchange among higher education providers in England and is a measure of a university’s impact. Within the system, universities are ‘clustered’ with peers based on multiple characteristics including their scale of research activity, subject mix and institutional type. Queen Mary University’s cluster includes other leading Russell Group peers including Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and University College London. 

In KEF6, the University has maintained the highest possible score, and is therefore classed as leading in the country, in the ‘public and community engagement, ‘IP and commercialisation’ and ‘research partnerships’ categories, and has seen a significant further improvement in two other areas: 

• CPD and graduate start-ups: Queen Mary is now classified as showing ‘high engagement’ (quintile 4), which recognises that the University has strengthened its strong position in relation to its professional degrees offering 

• Regeneration and local growth: Queen Mary is now classified as showing ‘high engagement’, in recognition of the University’s growing activity in this area, including for example, its partnership with Barts Health NHS to tackle health inequalities in East London 

The improvement in these areas now puts Queen Mary above average in these categories comparted to its Russell Group cluster peers, and it remains top in the ‘research partnerships’, ‘IP and commercialisation’ and ‘public engagement’ categories.  

Combined, these results demonstrate Queen Mary’s excellence in sharing knowledge, experience and ideas, and the benefit it brings to the local, national and global economy and society more broadly. They also further demonstrate the positive economic and social impact Queen Mary has on the UK economy.   

Speaking on the KEF6 results, Professor Colin Bailey CBE, President of Queen Mary University said: “The 2026 KEF results continue to demonstrate Queen Mary University’s excellence, remaining top for research partnerships, IP and commercialisation and public engagement when compared against other leading Russell Group universities.  

“I am pleased to see our improvement in other areas and we are now rightly recognised as having high engagement in the areas of CPD and graduate start-ups and regeneration and local growth, where we now are outperforming peers in these areas.   

“Overall, these results show Queen Mary University is a leader in the field of knowledge exchange, harnessing our excellence in research, innovation, and engagement to tackle the problems facing society and to deliver a positive impact in East London, the UK and beyond. 

“These results also highlight how Queen Mary is helping to support the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy and drive growth for the UK economy by investing in skills, innovation and entrepreneurship that benefit society as a whole.”   

To find out more, visit the Queen Mary KEF webpage.     

Read more: 

• Review the KEF6 results 
• Queen Mary’s excellence recognised in latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings - Queen Mary University of London
• Queen Mary ranked 25th in world for research collaboration - Queen Mary University of London
• Queen Mary welcomes Professor Sir Ian Chapman to Whitechapel campus - Queen Mary University of London