Rationale for the Teaching and Excellence Framework
(TEF)
For years it has been suggested that in many higher education
institutions (HEIs) teaching has been less valued than
research. The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) aims to
address this issue and to make teaching and research, in
universities and colleges, of equal status and to provide
students with better information on teaching standards.
Introduction of the TEF
A commitment to introduce ‘a framework to recognise
universities offering the highest teaching quality’ was
included in the Conservative 2015
Election Manifesto and the TEF process was introduced
in November 2015 in the higher education Green
Paper Fulfilling our
Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student
Choice. [1]
The TEF will encourage high quality teaching by financially
rewarding HEIs which are identified as delivering excellent
quality teaching. HEIs which are assessed by the TEF process as
deemed to be providing high quality teaching will be allowed to
increase their fees in line with inflation.
Implementation of the TEF
The first TEF awards were made in 2016; awards were granted to
HEIs with a current quality assessment of meeting, or exceeding
the expectations for quality and standards in England. Under
this criteria the majority of HEIs in England qualified for an
award and most of these providers subsequently announced a
tuition fee rise in 2017/18.
In year two TEF awards will be made on the basis of performance
against a set of metrics. During this phase of the process the
metrics chosen use currently available data on student
satisfaction, retention and employment outcomes. HEIs
will also be able to submit a qualitative submission to support
their metrics. HEIs will be assessed at three levels of
award Gold, Silver and Bronze. Providers which are
successful at any level will be able to increase their fees
in-line with inflation on top of their previous increase.
From year three onwards the TEF will develop to allow
differential fees and subject level fees and ultimately
postgraduate courses may be included.
Overtime the TEF will create a complicated system of fee levels
which will vary across providers and courses.
Issues with the TEF
The TEF has received support from HEIs, but concerns have been
expressed about the reputational impact of the TEF on UK higher
education. The linking of the TEF to increased tuition fees and
overseas student recruitment has also proved
controversial. Furthermore at a basic level critics have
suggested that the use of metrics is not a good proxy for
teaching quality and that the TEF may not be a meaningful
measure of what is generally considered to be good teaching
quality.
[1]
BIS, Fulfilling our
Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student
Choice, November 2015, Cm 9141
