So here comes the ‘Teaching Excellence Framework’ – do we actually need it?
The UK Government has indicated that it intends to introduce a system for assessing teaching quality of a kind that would be comparable with the Research Excellence Framework (REF). In July the new British Universities Minister, Jo Johnson, set out his agenda in a speech to Universities UK, in which he referred to ‘delivering a teaching excellence framework that creates incentives for universities to devote as much attention to the quality of teaching as fee-paying students and prospective employers have a right to expect’. He added that ‘it is striking that while we have a set of measures to reward high quality research, backed by substantial funding (the Research Excellence Framework), there is nothing equivalent to drive up standards in teaching.’
As a result there is now a process under way in England to design a TEF. Right now it is not yet clear whether Scottish universities should also be part of this framework. Some have argued that, for league table and related reasons, it would be important for Scotland to take part; others have indicated they would prefer Scotland not to join the TEF. But in any case, how sensible is the whole idea?
Even in our age of measuring everything to create raw material for rankings, no attempt had been made to date to develop metrics to rate comparative teaching excellence. In part this reluctance has been driven by recognition of variety – teaching will not always take the same form and pursue the same objectives from institution to institution and from subject to subject. But it is also really unclear as to whether there are objective standards that can be measured. Or rather, where something can be measured (such as student satisfaction) it already is.
The big risk inherent in a TEF is that it will punish innovation. Just as the REF (and its predecessor, the RAE) undermined interdisciplinarity and encouraged competent mediocrity, so a new TEF may persuade academics that sticking with traditional courses and teaching methods is safest. I hope we don’t go there.
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Tags: teaching and learning, Teacvhing Excellence Framework, TEF
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University Blog 
October 13, 2015 at 7:02 am
The big danger with this kind of initiative is that it will end up like Ofsted, an organisation that many teachers in Britain believe is driven by ideology as opposed to any real evidenced-informed approach to the assessment of T&L. (The ‘ideology’ in this case is a belief in the benefits of a certain type of ‘progressive’ teaching. An excellent commentary on the arguments can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Myths-About-Education-Christodoulou/dp/0415746825)