Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Teaching Excellence Framework

The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a mechanism for measuring the quality of teaching in higher education institutions in England, although institutions in other parts of the United Kingdom can also opt into the TEF if they choose. All higher education providers, including further education colleges and private institutions, can take part in the TEF. This entry discusses why the TEF was introduced, how it has been implemented, how the TEF assesses teaching excellence, and criticisms of the TEF.

Reasons for the TEF

There were two broad reasons for the introduction of the TEF. Following the Browne Review in 2010, tuition fees for UK and European Union students in England were increased to a maximum of £9,000. At the time of the introduction of the TEF in 2015–2016, all English universities charged this maximum, but the government was concerned that these flat fees masked large differences in the quality of degree programs. Whilst commercial university league tables provided information on the quality of degree programs, there was evidence that these league tables tended to favour elite universities. The TEF was introduced with the purpose of providing students with better information about the quality of degree programs, so that they could make more informed choices about where to study.

Second, the government’s intention was also to raise the profile of teaching and ensure that it was better recognised and rewarded by universities. Initially, institutions who entered into the TEF could raise their fees in line with inflation. The original plan was that the level of TEF award achieved by institutions would determine the amount by which they could raise their tuition fees. However, following public concern over the amount students were being charged in interest on their government loans to pay for their tuition fees, fees were frozen in October 2017.

Implementation of the TEF

In the first year of the TEF, 2015–2016, institutions were required to have a successful quality assurance review from the Quality Assurance Agency. The second year of the TEF, in 2016–2017, known as TEF2, examined teaching excellence at the level of the institution. The outcomes were reported in June 2017. Institutions were examined using a series of metrics: students’ views of teaching; assessment and academic support from the National Student Survey (NSS); student dropout rates and rates of employment of graduates, including a measure of highly skilled employment; and further study from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey. The performance of institutions was benchmarked against the demographic characteristics of their students, and based on this, their performance was flagged when it was statistically significantly better or worse than their benchmark. Assessors made an initial assessment of institutions’ performance based on the number of flags they had and then examined contextual information and an institutional submission of up to 15 pages that outlined the institution’s case for the excellence of their teaching. Based on this, they were awarded a gold, silver, or bronze TEF award. They held this award for up to 3 years, although they could reapply after a year.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution