TEF ‘must learn lessons from school and hospital ratings’

As a teacher of many years standing I was appalled at the level of teaching as I recently took courses at a local university. There were lecturers who could barely speak English, work was never marked and given back to the student, one lecturer admitted she knew nothing about SPSS but was there teaching it. I am someone who has been examined by OFSTED on more than one occasion and I knew that little of what I experienced would pass an OFSTED inspection. Given the level of private fees and taxpayers money involved in the university sector; teaching and learning must be brought to the fore in any assessment of that university's value to both that taxpayer and private fee payer. How absurd that I have had to state the obvious.

Perhaps the principal problem with this discussion is that the initial premise seems to be that introduction of such metrics has been beneficial to both the school and health sectors. That is somewhat presumptuous. Inspection also does not guarantee any standard of quality, as teacher friends of mine have commented upon in the past. Advance warning, shifting curricula and the politicisation of OFSTED are all things that might affect supposedly objective measurement. In many cases, universities are in an even worse position. Teaching, especially later in programmes relies on shifting curricula and integrating research and contemporary work into teaching. That certainly does not excuse staff without the correct skills teaching