The 2014 Research Excellence Framework has placed the University of Cambridge third, behind the University of Oxford and University College London, for the quality of its academic work in results published today.

In the first national research assessment of its kind since 2008, Cambridge dropped one position to a "power rank" of three, while Oxbridge and London universities continue to dominate the top ten.

The Research Excellence Framework determines the proportion of £2 billion of annual public funding that is awarded to successful institutions. Previously, finances have only been awarded to research units classified in the top bands of three and four stars. Although definitive details of the designation of this research funding will not be announced till March, Oxford is in prime position to gain the largest share. Research Fortnight predicts that Oxford will receive 6.24 per cent of overall research funding, compared to Cambridge's 5.33 per cent.

The results have been eagerly anticipated by the 154 institutions and 50,000 academics that have participated over the previous years. However, the assessment has been criticised in its quantitative attempts to measure educational excellence. The largest part of the criteria is quality of research output (65 per cent) and vibrancy of the research environment is also included (15 per cent), taking into account factors such as the presence of PhD students in a department.

Impact has, for the first time, also become a determining criterion, accounting for 20 per cent of the overall score of research pieces submitted. According to the REF, this includes "diverse impacts on the economy, society, culture, public policy and services, health, the environment and quality of life, within the UK and internationally."

It was believed that the inclusion of impact in criteria could increase the ranking of the strongest post-1992 universities, but the results show that this bracket of universities fail to compete with the research quality and quantity of longer established institutions. Plymouth is the highest ranking post-1992 university, placed at 50. The Russell Group have also continued their domination of the rankings, with all members taking the top 24 spots.

There has been a significant rise in overall quality of research in UK universities since 2008; a six per cent rise in “world-leading” research and a 13 per cent rise in that deemed “internationally excellent”. Nevertheless, the dominance of the power trio of Cambridge, Oxford and London universities remains apparent.

87 per cent of the University of Cambridge’s submissions have been rated as “world leading” or “internationally excellent”. Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice Chancellor of the university, today said: “These results demonstrate Cambridge’s strength in depth across research, in particular confirming our global leadership in the pure and applied sciences, clinical medicine, and in subjects as diverse as the Classics and business and management studies”.

Cambridge has secured sizeable, although as yet unspecified, block-grant research funding from the four main UK higher education bodies in the coming years. Though beneficial for the continuation of internationally recognised academic excellence within the University of Cambridge and other highly ranked institutions, today there has been a mixed reaction to the prospect of further concentration of taxpayer-funded investment in higher education into certain sectors.

In line with calls for more broad and balanced research analysis, Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the University and College Union, said that universities should receive continual “proper public funding” and expressed the need for “better funding that expands our research base, covering more institutions and more diverse areas of research”.