Teaching excellence framework (TEF)

The Teaching Excellence Framework’s reliance on existing outcomes and satisfaction data, as proxies for teaching quality, has always invited criticism. But with the OfS now proposing to use it to assess compliance with regulatory conditions, the TEF might have finally found its niche. Juliette Rowsell reports

Warnings revised TEF rules could damage universities with a widening participation agenda and fail to weed out bad actors

Revamped version of quality benchmark scheme will force more higher education providers to participate and punish those with lower ratings

Regulator exploring how to integrate exercise into wider quality assessments

Rather than designating England’s universities gold, silver or bronze the TEF should promote deeper understanding of teaching quality, says Steve Briggs 

Only 42 per cent of students have seen Teaching Excellence Framework ratings for universities they were interested in

Online distance learning specialist blames old data as OfS identifies ‘absence of excellence’

Five more institutions achieve gold awards after OfS resolves challenges to original ratings

Institutions without ratings at a disadvantage during crucial recruitment period as many wrongly assume appeals are due to their being designated ‘requires improvement’

Stringing out the numerous challenges could risk influence of Teaching Excellence Framework declining across the sector, experts fear

Large swathes of scores missing as OfS publishes first results of newly revamped exercise

As deadline for submissions approaches, OfS outlines how revamped exercise will benefit sector

Label would apply to providers failing to get a rating and in England would limit the fees they can charge, according to consultation

Regulator extends existing awards, with results of reformed evaluation not due to be published until 2023

Experts fear submissions in 2021 won’t be able to appropriately account for wide range of disruptions to student experience caused by pandemic

Teaching excellence framework will also no longer be an annual exercise, with next assessment due to be published next year

This week’s spending review could see commitments revisited and important policy documents released, predicts Nick Hillman

Ministers’ eagerness to launch yet another review when so many others remain unpublished is testing the patience of universities, says Andrew McRae

Long-awaited publication of Pearce review expected in autumn, but lack of time and changes in government priorities make 2021 awards unlikely

University of Glasgow principal Sir Anton Muscatelli says inputs into England’s TEF will become unreliable owing to pandemic shocks

Both are too resource-intensive to be sustainable during this crisis, and their objectives can be achieved through other measures, argues Dorothy Bishop

The UK government is determined to make good on its manifesto pledge to crack down on substandard university programmes. But what is quality? Is it best measured by graduate earnings, learning gain, a national university curriculum – or something else entirely? Anna McKie ponders the options 

Birmingham’s Kathleen Armour emphasises need for collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries

Education secretary’s backing for subject-level exercise before publication of TEF review prompts university warnings of ‘significant diversion of staff time’

Poland’s underperforming university system raises hard questions for those who advocate academic self-government over ‘managerialism’ 

Disciplinary-level assessment unlikely to survive in its current form, say sector leaders

Staffordshire and University for the Creative Arts secure gold, but Sheffield stays on silver

Royal Statistical Society vice-president Guy Nason explains why it has taken the unusual step of reporting the Teaching Excellence Framework to the UK’s statistics watchdog

The teaching excellence framework “needs urgent fixing” at all levels, review is warned

Universities UK fears cost of assessment could nudge £250,000 per provider

Only one in 10 respondents to UCU survey welcomes introduction of UK’s teaching assessment

Using the teaching excellence framework to drive up teaching standards is fundamentally misconceived, says Matt Waddup

Sir Chris Husbands visits Australia as it considers introducing performance-related funding system similar to UK’s teaching excellence framework

Only one in 50 respondents to DfE survey correctly state that ratings are not based on class observations

Data for English universities seem to show government metric based on salaries is skewed by location

Australia’s move to performance-based funding must be better thought through than England’s TEF, say Gwilym Croucher and Kenneth Moore

Review will assess whether process behind TEF ratings are ‘fit for use’ and whether scheme is in the public interest

Institutions face ‘never-ending rollercoaster’ of assessment, conference hears

UK higher education providers to be assessed across 34 disciplinary areas

Researchers clash with former minister on potential application of ‘distance travelled’ measures

University of London institution complained its large international cohort meant it was penalised in assessment

Analysis of latest data could spark similar debate to that seen in relation to the REF, about whether a complex assessment process is needed

Only 17 per cent of Ucas questionnaire’s 85,000 respondents understood government’s flagship exercise designed to improve student choice 

While the latest results of the teaching excellence framework brought joy for a number of institutions, they also throw up new questions about the validity of the exercise

The Hepi/Advance HE Student Academic Survey finds undergraduates at gold-rated institutions do not rank teaching staff highly

Concerns about the teaching excellence framework’s rigour and integrity have not been addressed. The exercise needs a fundamental rethink, says Guy Nason

Understanding how and why a university achieved a particular rating has become a tougher job than ever, writes Simon Baker

Improvements in the TEF awards from one year to another is not only remarkable, says Paul Aswhin, it also calls into question the validity of this exercise to accurately measure teaching quality 

THE journalists and Chris Husbands, chair of TEF, analyse the awards announced in the latest round of the teaching excellence framework

The second round of TEF outcomes shows a diverse higher education sector that excels in making a challenging and stimulating offering to its students, says Chris Husbands

Universities of Liverpool and Southampton among those to improve their ratings

UK universities have criticised proposals for discipline-level assessment in the teaching excellence framework

Better recognition of the wider social benefits of both teaching and research would help universities regain public goodwill, says Nick Petford 

Head of QAA says a wave of allegations against alternative providers shows need for action on academic malpractice

Sam Gyimah tells MPs that for universities ‘to carry on as if we are still in 1965 is not acceptable’

Pleas by Conservative backbenchers for an intervention to help the OU ignore the fact that they recently made it harder to assist under-pressure institutions, says Pam Tatlow

Edge Hill vice-chancellor John Cater explains why the new non-Russell Group medical schools are so vital

Lancaster University's vice-chancellor Mark E. Smith and Nicola Owen argue that a new composite ranking offers a more nuanced view of institutional excellence

Architects of merged league table say results show how old hierarchies are outdated, but pre-92 institutions still dominate