From its beginnings, the University has sought to be excellent in both teaching and research. It has now secured its place as one of the UK's leading research universities, confirmed by the results of the government's Research Assessment Exercises of 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996 and 2001. In all of these, Warwick has been placed in the top half dozen or so of universities for the quality of its research. Most recently, in the results of the 2001 exercise announced in December 2001, Warwick was placed fifth with over 90% of its staff working in departments rated 5 or 5*, the top two grades. Warwick has always taken the view that good research informs and strengthens the quality of education that it is able to offer its students. The original conception for the academic structure of the University was not to impose overall academic prescription but to make early appointments to the first professorships, selecting candidates with fresh and constructive ideas on how studies in their areas should be organised and developed. The planning of courses developed organically with a marked emphasis on inter-disciplinary cooperation. Business Studies and Engineering - both looking firmly towards the manufacturing heartlands of the West Midlands - were early developments. Warwick was a pioneer in seeking industrial-academic links, a key component of its strategy today just as it was in the original vision of the first Vice-Chancellor, Mr J B Butterworth (Lord Butterworth) and the Chairman of the Promotion Committee for the University, Lord Rootes. Since the early 1990s, when there has been external assessment of the quality of individual subjects in higher education in the UK, Warwick has done consistently well. The first subject was assessed in 1993 and the last, in the current round, in December 2001. The results show that the University has scored a rating of >21 points out of the maximum 24 (or the earlier equivalent of an excellent grade) on 22 occasions out of the 24 subjects assessed. These include 7 maximum scores of 24 and 5 excellents .
From its beginnings, the University has sought to be excellent in both teaching and research. It has now secured its place as one of the UK's leading research universities, confirmed by the results of the government's Research Assessment Exercises of 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996 and 2001. In all of these, Warwick has been placed in the top half dozen or so of universities for the quality of its research. Most recently, in the results of the 2001 exercise announced in December 2001, Warwick was p...
