The University of Liverpool has reached fifth place on the UK’s first University Global Health Research League Table, making the university the highest ranking institution outside of Oxford and London.

The league table is based on Medical Research Council (MRC) grant income from 2010 – 2011, as well as the proportion invested into public health research.

Universities were graded according to criteria measuring research funding and output, including the level of investment in global health research and research into widely ignored diseases that affect the world’s poorest. Another important criteria for tabling included accessibility: whether institutions shared their new discoveries in ways that ensured medicines would reach people in developing countries cheaply and how much of their research is freely available online.

The judges found that the University of Liverpool devotes 4.22% and 22.78% of its research funding towards research for health in developing countries and neglected diseases, respectively. This compares to a national average of 2% and 1.7%. Across all assessed metrics, Liverpool ranked 4th for innovation but only 10th for access.

The University of Oxford came out top of the table, followed by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Imperial College London.

The full League Table, produced by student group Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and charity and student network Medsin-UK, ranks the top 25 universities  is available online at www.globalhealthgrades.org.uk

Source

Image Credit

Words: Peter Cribley