There was no "magic secret" to Goldsmiths College's spectacular rise in the institutional rankings in this year's RAE, according to Nikolas Rose, pro-warden (research) and professor of sociology.
"We don't think there's any good fortune in this. It is basically four years of very, very hard work by everybody here," he said.
Goldsmiths only achieved university status in 1988 when it became a college of the University of London. In 1992 it was bottom of the old universities in the RAE, with an average rating of 3.15. This year it rated 5.03. It has done very well in humanities, social sciences, anthropology and sociology.
Professor Rose said introducing a research strategy at individual and department level and a research infrastructure had been a significant boost. Despite its poor financial position, the college has appointed a significant number of professors, who were typically young, enthusiastic researchers.
"Everybody is in favour of Goldsmiths becoming the leading research institution in our specialist area and being for the cultural and creative and social sciences the equivalent of the LSE," Professor Rose said.
He was confident the research success had not come at the expense of teaching, but he agreed that a culture shift had been necessary. One disappointment was a slip from 5 to 4 for the media and communications department. The English department also received only a 3a rating.
The nature of most research meant individuals, rather than teams, received funding and the college hoped to develop one or two externally funded research centres to focus inter-disciplinary research and bring in more graduate students and visiting fellows.