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Measuring excellence
The UK’s Teaching Excellence Framework is intended to guide students in their choice of course – but how impactful is this national scheme?
By John O' Leary
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Comparing standards of teaching between universities has proved to be the ultimate challenge for ranking organisations and higher education regulators. The few domestic rankings have generally been controversial - international ones even more so.
The latest attempt, the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) by England’s Office for Students (OfS), emerged at the end of last month – although its judgements will not be published in full until November. The gap speaks volumes about the complexity of the exercise, with almost a quarter of the universities and colleges currently appealing against their grading.
The TEF is intended to help guide students in their choice of course. But plans for subject-specific ratings were abandoned earlier this year and grades on a four-point scale (Gold, Silver, Bronze and 'Requires Improvement') are still pending for 23 universities and 30 colleges. Six of the universities had Gold ratings from the previous TEF in 2019, so it is assumed they are appealing against a lower grade. All but one of the remaining received a Silver, so some will be seeking an upgrade, while others will be appealing against relegation to Bronze.
The scope for appeals has been increased by changes in methodology for 2023. Whereas the three previous exercises have been largely data driven – albeit in areas such as completion rates and graduate employment, rather than teaching quality directly – no more than half of each score comes from such statistics this time.
The rest is determined by an expert panel which includes academics, student representatives and employers, with separate submissions from institutions and their students to guide decisions on the student experience and outcomes, as well as the overall grade.
“If it contributes to a process of continuous improvement inside institutions, it will be valuable – so long as the extra bureaucracy is worth it.”
This year’s TEF includes 128 higher education institutions, the majority with university status and another 100 further education colleges. A total of 33 higher education institutions received a Gold rating (26 percent), 66 Silver (52 percent) and four Bronze (3 percent).
A Gold rating shows that an institution has consistently demonstrated the highest quality of teaching and produces outstanding levels of retention and progression to graduate employment or further study for all types of students. Silver denotes high quality teaching, regularly exceeding the baseline expected of institutions, while Bronze shows satisfactory quality with most students achieving good outcomes but with results below the benchmark in one or more area.
A new category of 'Requires Improvement' has been introduced in the latest exercise. It has not been applied in any of the published results, although it might be assumed that one or more lurks among the 53 “pending” results and is currently under appeal.
As in previous editions of the TEF, the statistics have been benchmarked to allow for variations in average entry scores and the subjects offered. Unlike previous exercises however, separate scores have been published for the student experience and outcomes, in addition to the overall grade. Imperial College London, for example, was given Gold for its retention and graduate employment, but Silver for the student experience, with a Gold rating overall. In contrast, King’s College London, received the same grades as Imperial for both aspects but was awarded Silver overall.
Not surprisingly, Oxford and Cambridge retain the Gold ratings they carried forward from previous exercises. But only seven of the 20 English members of the Russell Group of leading research universities have so far received Gold ratings overall. Sheffield, which had the group’s highest ratings in the teaching quality sections of the National Student Survey, is still awaiting an appeal. The TEF is not mandatory in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.
The TEF results are keenly awaited in universities and colleges, with successes trumpeted on their websites and promotional material, but there is little evidence that applicants or their parents are swayed by them. The 2023 results were barely mentioned in the national press or television, most of which did not report them at all. A survey of applicants after the fourth round of the TEF in 2019 found that more than half had never heard of it and almost another quarter did not know what it did.
Nevertheless, Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the OfS, says the ratings would help guide future students as they make choices about what and where to study. “They show that excellence is found in a diverse range of institutions, with students from all backgrounds receiving an excellent education that equips them for success beyond graduation,” she adds, as many of the Gold ratings went to institutions with low entry grades as well as to high tariff providers.
Professor Chris Husbands, Vice-Chancellor of Gold-rated Sheffield Hallam University, who has chaired every round of the TEF, says: “The overwhelming picture which emerges from the 2023 TEF is of a very diverse sector in which excellence is broadly distributed between different types of provider and different parts of England.”
Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, who was a Conservative advisor on higher education when the TEF was first mooted, acknowledged that the exercise had done little to influence applicants, but he adds: “If it contributes to a process of continuous improvement inside institutions, it will be valuable – so long as the extra bureaucracy is worth it.”
The University and College Union, which represents lecturers, does not think it is. Jo Grady, the general secretary, notes: “The TEF's metrics are an extremely poor proxy for quality, they place yet more burdens onto staff and should be scrapped.”
The OfS is still yet to publish the submissions made by institutions and their students, as well as summaries of the panel’s statements setting out the reasons for the ratings awarded to each provider. The pending results may take even longer to appear, with a commitment only to publish them “once available”.
Further improvements are expected when the TEF appears again in four years’ time, although it may never truly compare teaching excellence because no system exists to measure it, other than through proxies. The last one that directly measured quality in UK universities by subject area was abolished in 2001 and no government has shown an appetite for reviving it.