Dr Diana Beech, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), responds to this morning’s release of the TEF 3 results:
‘Today’s TEF results appear good news all round. Of those providers which reapplied for an award under TEF 3, many managed to upgrade their previous awards. This shows there is much to be learnt with the benefit of hindsight and reflection on what worked in the 2017 exercise (as featured in HEPI report 99, Going for Gold: Lessons from the TEF provider submissions).
‘As the TEF evolves, so too will institutional ability to handle and interpret the TEF assessment criteria effectively. What we should now start to see is institutions from across the sector being rightly recognised for the pockets of teaching excellence they provide, not hampered by doubt about how best to formulate the required provider submissions.
‘I was particularly pleased to see two Welsh universities – Aberystwyth and Swansea – gain a Gold award this year. This shows the TEF is much more than a registration requirement for providers in England under the new Office for Students (OfS), but a policy initiative that is raising teaching quality and improving student outcomes right across Great Britain.’