Look ahead
Why TEF is good for students Myles Smith and Laura Hughes review the new tertiary education assessment Universities up and down the land have either been celebrating or concerned about their results in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), with some big names scoring surprising results. The TEF is the Government’s new method of assessing the quality of teaching delivered by higher education providers, graded by Gold, Silver or Bronze awards, and it is designed to give students better information to help them decide what and where to study. Students might at first disregard the results as just another league table, but with the TEF there are some significant differentiations that are worth a closer look. So, what does this mean for students looking for a top university, and how will it help them choose? When the major league tables look at each university, they tend to focus on absolute performance, so it stands to reason that the ‘top’ providers get the best scores. Research-intensive universities have for years dominated the higher positions in the traditional ranking, but this is challenged by the TEF’s focus on quality of teaching. Unlike almost all other higher education league tables, research performance makes no difference to the outcome of the TEF ratings.
Furthermore, entry grades are not used as an indicator of quality as they are in other methods of evaluating universities. It is true that a better cohort tends to perform better and have the best outcomes. Institutions bringing in the highest numbers of students with AAA grades are expected to have more students graduating with a good honours degree, 2:1 and above. However, the TEF benchmarking system transforms raw data into a measure of value-added. Applying this to graduate prospects, future earnings and the whole range of TEF metrics, builds up a picture of how any given university should perform, relative to its specific intake of undergraduate students and their entry qualifications, subjects studied and characteristics. For students who are considering which education provider to choose, this shows clearly which ones are outperforming expectations and therefore adding the most value to their students. The TEF focus on teaching and adding value is a positive step towards making universities and their academics even more accountable for the outcomes of their students. Dr Eylem Atakav, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at The
Autumn 2018
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