Several recent issues have covered the topic of business-facing universities, and last week was no exception ("Diversity challenge", 17 January). One indicator of how successful higher education institutions are in this res pect can be derived from the business-research element (BRE) of research funding. This was introduced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England last year based on research income from business. I have calculated the business-research element per full-time equivalent staff member for UK higher education institutions using data from Hefce and the Higher Education Statistics Agency, and the institution used in Times Higher Education as an example of a business-facing university is a long way from the top of this list.
THE TOP TEN INSTITUTION/BRE per FTE academic staff (£)
Cranfield University: 6,096
School of Pharmacy, University of London: 2,588
London Business School: 2,529
Imperial College: 2,207
Royal Veterinary College: 1,636
University of Cambridge: 1,568
Harper Adams University College: 1,469
University of Nottingham: 1,380
St George's Hospital Medical School: 1,315
King's College London: 1,309
It would be interesting if future articles on this topic could give an insight into the success of the institutions at the top of this table.
