This recognition highlights UWL’s strong commitment to knowledge exchange—working collaboratively with businesses, communities, public services, the third sector, and individuals beyond higher education to address local, national, and global challenges.
KEF not only enables universities to reflect on and improve their own performance but also serves as a valuable resource for external partners seeking access to world-class expertise and innovation from English higher education providers.
For this year’s results, UWL achievements include:
- Maintaining overall ‘Best in class’ GPA performance for Knowledge Exchange in our cluster
- Achieving ‘Top of our cluster’ with ratings of ‘high engagement’ in ‘Local growth and regeneration’ and ‘Research partnerships.’
Furthermore, UWL is among the best in its peer group among 18 other universities.
- UWL is above our cluster average performance across perspective ‘IP and commercialisation’, ‘working with business’, and ‘public and community engagement.’
The fifth iteration of the Knowledge Exchange Framework is underpinned by robust data collected by universities from August 2021 to July 2024.
Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Peter John CBE explains, “KEF5 highlights the continued success of UWL across multiple areas, demonstrating the breadth and impact of our knowledge exchange activities. It showcases how our work contributes meaningfully to the economy and society—benefiting the public, businesses, and communities.
By leveraging our expertise, UWL’s collaborations with non-HE partners continue to deliver meaningful economic and social impact.
Following our successes across the Research, Teaching and being ranked Number one London university for overall student satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2025, we are proud to add our growing strength in Knowledge Exchange to our list of achievements.”
- Learn more about Knowledge Exchange at UWL
- Find out more about Research England: Knowledge Exchange Framework