exercise was "devoid of any meaningful assessment of teaching" and that "there are serious lessons to be learned if the TEF is to gain public confidence." Enrollment into the exercise was voluntary and institutions were made aware of the metrics used before agreeing to be assessed by the TEF. In January 2018, the university confirmed that it would re-enter the TEF believing that it would benefit from changed evaluations that would benefit Russell Group universities. In 2018, Southampton was awarded Silver by the Teaching Excellence Framework Panel. In the 2023 TEF assessment, the university maintained its overall Silver rating.
The Guardian ranked the university at number 1 in the UK for Civil Engineering and Electronic and Electrical Engineering in 2020.
In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Southampton is ranked 17th by GPA and 16th for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).
=== Research ===
The university conducts research in most academic disciplines and is home to a number of notable research centres. Southampton has leading research centres in a number of disciplines, e.g. music, computer sciences, engineering or management sciences, and houses world-leading research institutions in fields as varied as oceanography and web science.
Within the university there are a number of research institutes and groups that aim to pool resources on a specific research area. Institutes or groups identified by the university of being of significant importance are marked in italics.
==== Institute of Sound and Vibration Research ====
The Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR), is an acoustical research institute which is part of the University of Southampton. Founded in 1963, it has been awarded a 2006 Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education.
ISVR is divided into four distinct groups of research:
The Dynamics …
