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Teaching Excellence Framework
The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) is a government assessment of the quality of undergraduate teaching in universities and other higher education providers in England, which may be used from 2020 to determine whether state-funded providers are permitted to raise tuition fees. Higher education providers from elsewhere in the United Kingdom are allowed to opt-in, but the rating has no impact on their funding. The TEF rates universities as Gold, Silver or Bronze, in order of quality of teaching. The first results were published in June 2017. This was considered a "trial year" (even though the non-provisional ratings awarded are valid for 3 years) and is to be followed by a "lessons learned exercise" that will feed into the 2018 TEF and longer-term plans for subject-level ratings.
In October 2017 the official title of the exercise was officially renamed from Teaching Excellence Framework to the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework.
The TEF ratings are based on statistics such as dropout rates, student satisfaction survey results and graduate employment rates. These are assessed by experts in teaching and learning who make a recommendation to a TEF panel, which includes academics and students, that will make the final award. Universities are measured across three areas: teaching quality, learning environment, and student outcomes and learning gain. For 2017, all institutions meeting basic standards will be allowed to raise fees. The first ratings were to have been announced on 14 June 2017, publication having been delayed from May due to the UK general election, but were postponed until 22 June after the election resulted in a hung parliament. It was expected that 20–30% of the institutions would be rated gold, 50–60% silver, and 20% bronze. The actual distribution, across all rated institutions including further education and alternative providers, was 26% gold, 50% silver, 24% bronze.
The ratings are described by the Department for Education as:
Institutions that do not enter the TEF or that do not meet the minimum quality threshold will not receive an award. Institutions with insufficient data for a full assessment but which meet the quality standards can receive an unrated provisional award.
The TEF ratings do not measure absolute performance, like traditional university league tables, but rather performance against benchmarks based on their student intake. A university with a low absolute dropout rate of 2% and a benchmark of 2% would thus be rated worse on this measure than a university with a much higher absolute dropout rate of 8% but a benchmark of 11%. The ratings thus measure a university based on the profile of students admitted and subjects taught.
The "initial hypothesis" for the ratings is based on six core metrics, for which institutions receive a double-positive flag, a positive flag, no flag, a negative flag or a double-negative flag, depending on whether they exceed or fall short of their benchmark by certain thresholds. These are:
Institutions received three or more positive flags and no negative flags are initially considered Gold; institutions with two or more negative flags are initially considered Bronze; all other institutions are initially considered Silver. This initial hypothesis can then be modified by the panel based on the written submissions and 'split' metrics (a breakdown of the core metrics by gender, ethnicity, age, disability, etc.). While the extent of these modifications was expected to be limited, changes were made to the initial hypothesis in 22% of cases. Among higher education institutions and alternative providers, three were downgraded, 17 were upgraded from Bronze to Silver, 15 were upgraded from Silver to Gold, and one was upgraded from Bronze to Gold.
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Teaching Excellence Framework
The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) is a government assessment of the quality of undergraduate teaching in universities and other higher education providers in England, which may be used from 2020 to determine whether state-funded providers are permitted to raise tuition fees. Higher education providers from elsewhere in the United Kingdom are allowed to opt-in, but the rating has no impact on their funding. The TEF rates universities as Gold, Silver or Bronze, in order of quality of teaching. The first results were published in June 2017. This was considered a "trial year" (even though the non-provisional ratings awarded are valid for 3 years) and is to be followed by a "lessons learned exercise" that will feed into the 2018 TEF and longer-term plans for subject-level ratings.
In October 2017 the official title of the exercise was officially renamed from Teaching Excellence Framework to the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework.
The TEF ratings are based on statistics such as dropout rates, student satisfaction survey results and graduate employment rates. These are assessed by experts in teaching and learning who make a recommendation to a TEF panel, which includes academics and students, that will make the final award. Universities are measured across three areas: teaching quality, learning environment, and student outcomes and learning gain. For 2017, all institutions meeting basic standards will be allowed to raise fees. The first ratings were to have been announced on 14 June 2017, publication having been delayed from May due to the UK general election, but were postponed until 22 June after the election resulted in a hung parliament. It was expected that 20–30% of the institutions would be rated gold, 50–60% silver, and 20% bronze. The actual distribution, across all rated institutions including further education and alternative providers, was 26% gold, 50% silver, 24% bronze.
The ratings are described by the Department for Education as:
Institutions that do not enter the TEF or that do not meet the minimum quality threshold will not receive an award. Institutions with insufficient data for a full assessment but which meet the quality standards can receive an unrated provisional award.
The TEF ratings do not measure absolute performance, like traditional university league tables, but rather performance against benchmarks based on their student intake. A university with a low absolute dropout rate of 2% and a benchmark of 2% would thus be rated worse on this measure than a university with a much higher absolute dropout rate of 8% but a benchmark of 11%. The ratings thus measure a university based on the profile of students admitted and subjects taught.
The "initial hypothesis" for the ratings is based on six core metrics, for which institutions receive a double-positive flag, a positive flag, no flag, a negative flag or a double-negative flag, depending on whether they exceed or fall short of their benchmark by certain thresholds. These are:
Institutions received three or more positive flags and no negative flags are initially considered Gold; institutions with two or more negative flags are initially considered Bronze; all other institutions are initially considered Silver. This initial hypothesis can then be modified by the panel based on the written submissions and 'split' metrics (a breakdown of the core metrics by gender, ethnicity, age, disability, etc.). While the extent of these modifications was expected to be limited, changes were made to the initial hypothesis in 22% of cases. Among higher education institutions and alternative providers, three were downgraded, 17 were upgraded from Bronze to Silver, 15 were upgraded from Silver to Gold, and one was upgraded from Bronze to Gold.