tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/teaching-excellence-framework-18979/articlesTeaching Excellence Framework – The Conversation2017-11-23T11:41:56Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/879002017-11-23T11:41:56Z2017-11-23T11:41:56ZDavid Willetts interview: ‘We need a broader view of what constitutes a good university’<p><em>David Willetts was minister for universities and science in the coalition government from 2010 to 2014, when the cap on tuition fees was raised to £9,000 per year in England and Wales. In his new book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-university-education-9780198767268?cc=gb&lang=en&">A University Education</a>, he provides a defence of that policy following intense recent debate about it.</em> </p>
<p><em>Willetts, who now sits in the House of Lords and is also the executive chair of the <a href="http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/">Resolution Foundation</a>, sees the fee rise as pivotal in increasing the number of people benefiting from higher education, a process he is keen to see continue further. But the book goes far beyond the tuition fee debate. It provides an engaging and authoritative guide to “the university” as an institution which aims to instil “values of pursuing truth through reason and evidence” – values of particular importance in the current context of “fake news” and populist politics.</em> </p>
<p><em>But while universities may share this overarching aim, Willetts also argues that we need to celebrate diversity in our higher education (HE) sector, rather than a single idea of what constitutes a top university. I sat down with him for The Conversation.</em></p>
<p><strong>Karen Rowlingson: You show, in the book, that university education benefits society as well as individuals. So should the funding of universities also be better balanced between society and individual students? Would one possibility be to reduce the fee and raise extra through general taxation and then change the repayment mechanism so that those on higher earnings pay more back?</strong></p>
<p>David Willetts: I think actually the way that you can reflect and put in public support is different and I identify the ways we do. First of all … we should meet the extra cost of higher cost subjects. Secondly, students who for whatever reason … may find it harder to benefit from HE, for example disabled students, students from tough backgrounds, there’s still some funding – not as much as there was – but there’s still some funding for the extra costs of those students </p>
<p>And then thirdly, writing off the repayments from people with low incomes… So I think that’s a well-designed, well-targeted way of using public resource to support people in higher education. </p>
<p><strong>But still the £9,250 a year fee is a very large share of the cost and is it fair that younger generations have to pay so much more for their higher education than older generations did?</strong> </p>
<p>I understand that argument. The good news is that I think most 18-year-olds do understand the reality that it is not an amount of money they have to pay up front. The real thing that matters is it’s 9% of earnings above £21,000 – of course that’s going up to 9% of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/oct/01/tuition-fee-repayment-earnings-threshold-rise-to-25000">earnings above a threshold of £25,000</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Is that something you agree with, changing the threshold?</strong></p>
<p>Well, I personally didn’t think that 9% on earnings above £21,000 was unduly onerous. It meant that if you were earning £25,000 a year you were paying back 9% on the final £4,000 so that was £360 a year, £30 a month. If there were resources available to help people in HE, increasing the repayment threshold would not have been my priority. It’s good that graduates are going to be paying back a lower proportion of their earnings, but as I say, I think one could have spent the money in other ways. </p>
<p><strong>You talk about graduate tax in the book and that’s one alternative that’s been suggested. What are your thoughts on that?</strong> </p>
<p>Basically what we’ve got is a repayable education voucher for HE. You’re given an education voucher and told, take it to the university. The university has to decide whether or not to admit you and then if you end up in a well-paid job, we’ll gradually reclaim it off you. I know the graduate tax is now back on the agenda, but it does have a range of defects. </p>
<p>First of all it brings the whole system back into tax and public spending. And it’s no longer the case that the individual is bringing the resource to educate him or her, instead it’s coming as public expenditure out of central government. My view is that has never worked to the advantage of higher education, it’s always ended up being at the back of the queue.</p>
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<p>Secondly, you will expect some people to pay back a lot more than the cost of their higher education … That means if I am studying economics at the LSE or law at Oxford and some others which we know about, there are now massive penalties for me to study in the UK rather than going abroad. You’re saying, by virtue of having done this course, you will be paying back a very large amount of money.</p>
<p>Thirdly, it doesn’t solve today’s funding problem. The big design question is do you collect it off current graduates? There’s nothing in the system that tells the Inland Revenue I’m a graduate, so you need some massive exercise, to do a sort of Doomsday Book exercise, to try and work out the people in the country who are graduates. … You can only roll it in for future generations, so once you say it’s for current students and their successors, it doesn’t solve a problem for about ten years.</p>
<p>The last Labour government, encouraged by Gordon Brown, looked at it very carefully and all the people who were involved in the debate then, including Andrew Adonis … concluded that a graduate tax is a bad idea. So I don’t think it’s a flyer. Labour tried to make it work. All three political parties when they’ve actually been in office have ended up with this model that we’ve got. </p>
<p><strong>When I talk to my own students it’s the level of maintenance support which is a key problem. What do you think we should do about that?</strong> </p>
<p>I completely agree with you … The pressure point is cash to live on while you’re at university. And in terms of access that’s the pressure point. When I was in office we increased the total amount of maintenance cash available for students and it’s gone up a bit more since. But … if there were any spare resource around, my priority would be more cash for students to help with their living costs while at university.</p>
<p><strong>You talk about the benefits of the current system in increasing the numbers going to university. Do you think there is any kind of limit to the numbers of people that should go to university?</strong> </p>
<p>I don’t believe in government setting a target. So I don’t believe in the Blair 50% target [of people going to university] but I do absolutely think that in modern societies for deep social, cultural and economic reasons, the numbers going to university have increased, are increasing and ought not to be diminished. So if I look forward I see no reason why it should stop at 50%. </p>
<p>And also, this is a good thing, we’ve <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/sep/28/almost-half-of-all-young-people-in-england-go-on-to-higher-education">achieved 50% for women</a>. We’ve not achieved 50% for men and so I think it would be good if men could catch up with the academic achievements of women. </p>
<p><strong>Should we move towards a more <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2017/07/20/new-report-calls-comprehensive-universities-improve-social-mobility/">comprehensive system of universities</a> that people could go to locally, perhaps?</strong> </p>
<p>I think the English model is distinctive and I think it’s a good thing that it’s distinctive. The idea of going away from home to university I’m sure goes back to the Oxford and Cambridge model and then this extraordinary 600 years when they were the only two English universities suppressing attempts at creating other universities. Not until the 1830s did we get any further universities in England. </p>
<p>Now one of the effects of that was to establish very clearly the idea you went away from home to university and it is a really important rite of passage, especially in England. And I think it’s a kind of managed transition to adulthood, it’s about the most powerful effective form that the modern Western world has got. </p>
<p>So I do understand the value of people leaving home to go to university. I wouldn’t want to see a situation where poor kids stayed at home and rich kids went away to university. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/195814/original/file-20171122-6016-1emfzm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Other doors are available.</span>
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<p><strong>You talk a lot about digital innovation in education … will that help mature students who are less likely to go to university now? And how do we reflect on that with the experience of the Open University at the moment which is going through a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/20/open-university-strike-ou-regional-centres-moocs">really difficult time</a>, but which is digitally advanced?</strong> </p>
<p>I always kind of plead guilty on this, that one of the things in my time as universities minister that I most regret is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/part-time-students-feel-squeezed-out-by-universities-obsessed-with-teenagers-47447">decline</a> in the number of mature, part-time students. It was not the plan. What I thought we would achieve is by extending more fee loans to more mature students that they would take them out. But actually the evidence is that whilst the classic young person going to university to get their first degree understands and is comfortable with the graduate repayment scheme; that’s not the case for mature students … That’s where we both need technological innovation and we also need more funding. </p>
<p><strong>You challenge the predominant, uni-dimensional hierarchy of universities and suggest that we should recognise the strength of some universities outside of the Russell Group. Can you say more about this?</strong></p>
<p>One of the themes running through the book is that our understanding of what constitutes a good university is incredibly limited. When you look at the ones that get to the top of the conventional rankings, you do it above all by high-quality research and high prior attainment of your students. That is one model and it’s a good model. But my frustration is people think that means that if you’re a university that focuses more on teaching than on research and which takes students with lower priority attainments, that means you’re a less good university. It doesn’t. It means you’ve got a distinct and different mission. </p>
<p>So I’m trying to get people to have a broader view of what constitutes a good university. There are a range of ways of being world class and taking kids with lower attainment – pushing them forward and transforming their life chances with strong links to local businesses is a fantastic way of being a world class university. </p>
<p><strong>So how can we do that in practice? Shall we have different kinds of league tables?</strong> </p>
<p>Whatever the issues around the <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/tef/">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF) – and of course ministers have made clear from the beginning that it’s a kind of first go, it’s open to revision and amendment – the crucial prize of the TEF is at last we’ve got a league table that doesn’t have exactly the same structure as every other league table. Although it is very tough really to measure teaching, nevertheless I think as the big data revolution reaches HE we will have increasing opportunities to do so. </p>
<p><strong>Given that there are already many different universes serving different missions, do you think there’s a gap? If a new university were to be set up tomorrow to meet today’s needs, what would that new university look like?</strong> </p>
<p>The teaching of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] would be a very strong candidate because as there is public funding for the higher-cost subjects and STEM of course comes with higher cost, eligibility for that public funding has become a kind of barrier to entry for new providers in this area. And that’s particularly acute with medical schools which have very high costs and where hitherto there’s been a kind of restriction on the numbers of medical students and NHS-linked medical schools. There’s an Aston initiative on medical education, and I think Buckingham are trying to get into medical education. </p>
<p>And then on engineering there’s this <a href="http://www.olin.edu/">Olin model</a> which is a different approach to engineering that is willing to take on people who may not have got A-levels in maths and physics. That’s also very interesting. Engineering is a case study of why I care so much about broadening education and not having so much early specialisation. If you say in order to do engineering at university you have to have A-levels in physics and maths, you’re down to about 4% of teenagers being eligible to do engineering. If classics was still working on the basis you’ve got to have A-levels in Latin and Greek, classics would have died as a discipline in English universities, but was obliged to change it sort of as the A-levels declined. </p>
<p><strong>What about the idea of <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/the_challenge-driven_university.pdf">challenge-led universities</a> which bring together disciplines across the STEM/non-STEM divide to try to tackle major problems globally and nationally?</strong></p>
<p>It’s not that I think that STEM is the only route to truth. The two cultures problem in England is acute, unusually acute, because of early specialisation. </p>
<p>I argue that universities have quite a high part of the responsibility for early specialisation because they’re looking for people who already know a lot about a very narrow range of subjects. [That is] such a contrast with America where the most popular single course specified when you apply for an American university is undeclared. </p>
<p>As soon as you think about a university recruitment system where the biggest single group of people applying are called undeclared, and you think through how a classic English university would operate if the biggest single category of students had not yet decided what they’re going to study, you realise the incredible power of the particular way we do admissions in England. </p>
<p><strong>How do you think Brexit is going to impact on universities?</strong></p>
<p>Well, I was a Remainer and there clearly are massive risks for universities from Brexit. On the research side … the fact that they’ve just started the FP9 discussions in Brussels <a href="http://www.researchresearch.com/news/article/?articleId=1371299">with no British representatives</a> around the table as they start shaping the research priorities for that next seven year programme in the EU is so dispiriting and frustrating.</p>
<p>For student recruitment, the evidence is a bit more complex because of course one of the results of Brexit has been a fall in the value of the pound. So that has meant we look cheaper if you’re coming from abroad. Now on the other hand, EU students may lose their access to loans but we don’t know that. You could imagine in the negotiations about the future long-term relationship that we say we will extend loans to British students to study in the EU in return for EU students having loans from their government, or from us, or some combination to come and study here. So I think that it is all up for negotiation and we must hope that we can signal that we’re open to students and academics from around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Rowlingson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As a minister in the coalition government, Willetts introduced £9,000 tuition fees. In an interview as he publishes a new book, he says the system is well-designed and fair.Karen Rowlingson, Professor of Social Policy, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/799622017-06-22T16:18:52Z2017-06-22T16:18:52ZWhy ranking universities on graduate job prospects is a step in the right direction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175251/original/file-20170622-27023-ritbzj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Welcome to the new age of higher education.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some may argue it’s always wrong to try to evaluate something as complex as teaching. As an educationist – who knows just how complex teaching can be – I have some sympathy with this. </p>
<p>But more than ever before, students are investing significant sums of money – and personal risk – in their higher education. And they are particularly interested in precisely the things the new <a href="https://theconversation.com/tef-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-university-rankings-79932">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF) measures. Things such as how likely they are to secure a highly skilled job as a result of their course, or how good their chosen university or college is at retaining students. These are both valid questions and we have the data to answer them – not crudely collected, but carefully collated.</p>
<p>As well as job prospects and dropout rates, the TEF also looks at how effective students think the assessment and feedback is at their university, along with the mix of students from different backgrounds and ethnic groups. </p>
<h2>Students first</h2>
<p>In many ways, the TEF signals <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-tef-could-change-the-way-students-think-about-a-university-education-68028">a new way of thinking for universities</a>. It sits alongside a number of recently published studies as part of an increased focus on outcomes for students. This includes the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/graduate-outcomes-longitudinal-education-outcomes-leo-data">Longitudinal Education Outcomes</a> data on salaries and employment, as well as the pilot studies of “<a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/lg/">learning gain</a>” – a measure of the improvement in knowledge, skills, work readiness and personal development – made by students during their time spent at university. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175245/original/file-20170622-12008-1h0uis5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175245/original/file-20170622-12008-1h0uis5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175245/original/file-20170622-12008-1h0uis5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175245/original/file-20170622-12008-1h0uis5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175245/original/file-20170622-12008-1h0uis5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175245/original/file-20170622-12008-1h0uis5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175245/original/file-20170622-12008-1h0uis5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Universities are changing the way they view their students.</span>
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<p>In the past, universities have thought more about inputs, processes and outputs. Attention has been concentrated on staff, technology, curriculum, assessments and degree classifications. But this new focus on outcomes is a potential game changer. Not because outcomes are all that matter, but because, in a mass higher education system, they do matter. These <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-universities-will-have-to-pay-more-attention-to-the-quality-of-their-teaching-47186?sr=3">outcomes are at the very core of the TEF</a>, and they require universities to think hard about the impact of what they do and how they evaluate it. </p>
<p>Institutions which did best, wherever they are in the sector, grasped this with coherent and compelling ways to describe that relationship. The very best submissions were a joy to read, conveying a rich, vibrant learning experience which, among other things, engaged and stretched students – extending their sense of what is possible and orienting them to success beyond university or college. And this success was distributed across the sector – it is independent of institutional reputation, age, subject makeup or regional location. </p>
<h2>Performance gaps</h2>
<p>Quite rightly, the TEF panel was required to focus on the way higher education meets the needs of the most disadvantaged. There are real success stories here, but few submissions were systematic on the ways in which disadvantage is addressed, and how they act to close performance gaps among groups of students. </p>
<p>This proved to be one of the most revealing and absorbing parts of the exercise, and one where almost everyone has things to learn – particularly from those institutions which are already working with marginalised groups in difficult settings. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175249/original/file-20170622-26496-l1245e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175249/original/file-20170622-26496-l1245e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175249/original/file-20170622-26496-l1245e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175249/original/file-20170622-26496-l1245e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175249/original/file-20170622-26496-l1245e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175249/original/file-20170622-26496-l1245e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175249/original/file-20170622-26496-l1245e.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">UK universities need to be more representative.</span>
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<p>As an educationist whose research expertise has been in schools, it strikes me that universities have much to learn from schools in the way they <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-improve-the-chances-of-poor-children-at-school-34787?sr=12">address disadvantage</a>. It’s not enough simply to widen participation. What is important is to close gaps in attainment and to secure success beyond enrolment. </p>
<h2>Lessons to learn</h2>
<p>It’s been an exceptional privilege to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/professor-chris-husbands-named-as-inaugural-tef-chair">chair the TEF panel</a> and to oversee the assessment. The results clearly demonstrate the UK has a world-class higher education sector with outstanding examples across the country.</p>
<p>Almost inevitably it has been controversial, but it marks a striking advance for the sector – focused on outcomes and the processes which produce them. It is also a way of further raising the profile of one of the most important things all universities do: teaching. </p>
<p>The TEF team is not only publishing the results, but all the data – statistical and written submissions – that the assessments are based on. No higher education system in the world has previously released such a fabulous resource for understanding teaching. I will be using these results to ask tough questions of my own team at Sheffield Hallam, about what we do and how. And I hope other universities will use the opportunity to do the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Husbands is retained by the government to chair the TEF panel.</span></em></p>The TEF’s focus on outcomes is a potential game changer for universities.Chris Husbands, Vice Chancellor, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/708852017-01-06T12:09:42Z2017-01-06T12:09:42ZHigher education is being turned upside down at completely the wrong time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151920/original/image-20170106-18641-uam2in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The changing landscape of UK higher education.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is little doubt that the challenging, turbulent and uncertain times faced by the UK’s university sector in 2016 are set to continue well into 2017 – with the focus now swiftly turning to the Higher Education and Research Bill, <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/highereducationandresearch.html">which is currently before parliament</a>.</p>
<p>Under the new bill, alternative education providers would be able to gain degree-awarding powers and university titles more easily. And it is this seemingly full-scale “marketisation” of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/dec/31/lords-revolt-tory-plans-free-market-universities">higher education sector</a> that is causing concern for many. </p>
<p>The Higher Education Policy Institute’s <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2017/01/05/3762/">recent report</a> showed that three-quarters of these alternative providers – many of which are privately owned and overseas – will remain unregulated after the new bill becomes law. This is because students at these small overseas providers often do not receive financial support from the Student Loans Company – meaning that the institutions aren’t automatically registered as a higher education provider. This will mean that these types of institutions can easily slip through the net – as registration for them will be optional.</p>
<p>One of the report’s co-authors, John Fielden, concluded that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Alternative providers are numerous and diverse, with over 700 institutions operating in England alone. Designing a regulatory system for both the traditional sector and the newcomers is a bed of nails.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, cautioned: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As the higher education market continues to change shape, we must be vigilant in ensuring bad apples do not contaminate the sector as a whole. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This suggests that higher education markets are currently not efficient or tight enough on regulatory matters. And a <a href="http://www.researchcghe.org/perch/resources/publications/ppreport.pdf">recent report by University College London</a> confirms this. It found that most private higher education providers outside the UK are teaching only institutions – so they don’t undertake their own research – and are less prestigious and less innovative than public sector providers.</p>
<p>But universities minister Jo Johnson argues that the success of UK universities on the world stage is in part due to their independence and autonomy to decide how and what to teach and research. And <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/comment/higher-education-and-research-bill-its-matter-trus">Johnson believes</a> that the bill will in fact “enshrine those values in legislation”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151921/original/image-20170106-29222-sp9pbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151921/original/image-20170106-29222-sp9pbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151921/original/image-20170106-29222-sp9pbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151921/original/image-20170106-29222-sp9pbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151921/original/image-20170106-29222-sp9pbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151921/original/image-20170106-29222-sp9pbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151921/original/image-20170106-29222-sp9pbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s hard to know what the future of UK education will truly look like.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under the bill, the future of research is also feared. Currently there are ten UK institutions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2016/oct/18/higher-education-research-Bill-needs-amended">ranked among the top 50 worldwide</a> in terms of their research. High quality university research is vital for the lifeblood of a civilised nation and should not be undermined. </p>
<p>But this could all be about to change as the new <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-research-and-innovation-business-case">UK Research and Innovation</a> body will integrate the seven current research councils with Innovate UK. Never before has one organisation been responsible for the distribution of that volume of money – and the impact this will have on higher education is as yet unclear. </p>
<h2>The point of the bill</h2>
<p>It is easy then to see why so many in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/occams-corner/2016/oct/18/higher-education-research-bill-needs-amended">sector are up in arms</a> about the drastic new proposals. </p>
<p>But as supporters of the bill claim, the main aim of these reforms is to provide greater choice for students. Arguably, these are the people who really matter in all of this. And the government has claimed that greater transparency around university rankings is one way this “choice” can be achieved.</p>
<p>The introduction of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-excellence-framework-year-2-specification">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF) will see English universities ranked gold, silver or bronze depending on the quality of their learning and teaching. A bronze rating will mean “significantly below” benchmark standards in some areas. And from 2018, these ratings will determine which universities can raise tuition fees by the rate of inflation. </p>
<p>This could well be a game-changer for UK higher education – with the <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/teaching-excellence-score-key-applicants-choices">2016 Student Experience Survey</a> revealing that 84% of university applicants would consider the TEF score when choosing a university. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151922/original/image-20170106-18641-1xxzvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151922/original/image-20170106-18641-1xxzvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151922/original/image-20170106-18641-1xxzvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151922/original/image-20170106-18641-1xxzvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151922/original/image-20170106-18641-1xxzvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151922/original/image-20170106-18641-1xxzvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151922/original/image-20170106-18641-1xxzvab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Student experience is said to be at the heart of these changes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the TEF could also cause more than a few problems. Take for example London Business School <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/ft-global-mba-ranking-2016-london-business-school-retains-uk-top-spot">which is top in the world</a> in the Financial Times Global MBA rankings – above Harvard. Yet it actually has the lowest number of <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/news/uk-universities-most-qualified-academic-staff">faculty members with teaching qualifications</a> in the UK – which is a component of the TEF. So under the new system, this world-class business school could effectively be rated as “significantly below benchmark standards”.</p>
<h2>Fears for the future</h2>
<p>It is questionable then how “bronze” institutions will market themselves to potential students. Plus there are also concerns that <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/uk-higher-education-system-works-so-why-overhaul-it">graduates from these institutions</a> may find marketing themselves to potential employers increasingly difficult.</p>
<p>And, of course, measuring teaching quality through TEF types of metrics is questionable. As Phil Baty, the Times Higher rankings editor, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/mock-teaching-excellence-framework-tef-results-revealed-a-new-hierarchy-emerges.">pointed out</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many would argue that the best university teaching involves making students feel challenged and even uncomfortable; something that cannot always be associated with satisfaction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Government claims that the changes will help to boost social mobility, life chances and opportunities may also prove untenable. This is because for many poorer students the location of a university is a key factor in their choice of where to study. So these students may well end up having to attend a low ranked university as it is simply closer to home.</p>
<p>But while the true nature of many of the reforms are still unclear, what is for certain is that if things continue as they are, by mid 2018, the UK’s higher education system will look remarkably different from the one we know today. And only time will tell whether this is a good or a bad thing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70885/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Davies receives funding from the EU for an Erasmus Plus project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Blake does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Higher Education and Research Bill is well overdue, but is now really the right time to make huge changes to the sector?Julie Davies, HR Subject Group Leader, University of HuddersfieldJoanne Blake, Senior Lecturer Department of Managment, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/680282016-11-23T10:29:59Z2016-11-23T10:29:59ZWhy the TEF could change the way students think about a university education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145230/original/image-20161109-19078-t5scjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is one of the remarkable transformations of our time: the world is going to university, and participation in higher education is increasing. On every continent, more young people are going to university than ever before, and increasing numbers are graduating. In the UK, <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students">over a third of 18-year-olds go to university</a> – and that figure is higher in the US, Canada and Korea, and rising fast in China and Africa. </p>
<p>As a result, around the world, governments are challenging their university systems to play an ever greater part in generating knowledge, educating highly skilled workforces and building more cohesive societies. </p>
<p>At the same time, they are puzzling about <a href="http://bigthink.com/experts-corner/can-we-still-afford-higher-education">how to afford mass higher education</a>. And that situation opens up a potential gap, between the world of higher education providers and the world of stakeholders – <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20161103200317329">who are demanding more</a>, and demanding it more accessibly. </p>
<h2>Teaching excellence</h2>
<p>Universities are unique institutions – not just because they undertake research or because they teach – but because, uniquely, they do both. And great teaching matters – it matters to universities as much as it matters to schools and colleges. And for the first time the quality of teaching at English universities will be assessed as part of the introduction of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-teaching-excellence-framework-will-work-50323">teaching excellence framework</a> (TEF). </p>
<p>Of course, identifying and recognising high quality teaching is both simple and complex. Excellence in teaching is something we all know when we see it, but specifying what exactly it is turns out to be a more complex exercise. </p>
<p>The TEF addresses this in a sensible way. It does not set out to assess teaching quality directly, but to look for those features which are the consequence of high quality teaching and student engagement, such as strong student responses, high levels of progression and retention.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145232/original/image-20161109-19097-yv0jr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145232/original/image-20161109-19097-yv0jr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145232/original/image-20161109-19097-yv0jr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145232/original/image-20161109-19097-yv0jr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145232/original/image-20161109-19097-yv0jr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145232/original/image-20161109-19097-yv0jr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145232/original/image-20161109-19097-yv0jr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the tasks for the TEF is to shape clear judgements about teaching excellence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The TEF begins from a common sense position – that teaching quality, learning environment and student outcomes are the right places to look for evidence of the impact universities have. It then derives “core metrics” from the annual National Student Survey and HESA data on student initial employment – and uses these to develop initial theories about the work universities are doing. </p>
<p>All of this will be overseen by a panel drawn from across and beyond the sector, applying its judgement and expertise – and I am the chair of the panel.</p>
<h2>High stakes</h2>
<p>The TEF brings the opportunity to create a structure to celebrate excellence, provide clearer market signals and enhance quality across the sector. And if we get it right, to give yet stronger signals to international students about the sheer quality to be found across UK higher education. </p>
<p>The UK government is clear that it wants to create a <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-universities-will-have-to-pay-more-attention-to-the-quality-of-their-teaching-47186">link between funding and teaching quality</a>, which will provide opportunities to reinforce and celebrate quality. And this is an opportunity to enhance understanding of higher education and of the way teaching is developing in a responsive and fast-changing sector.</p>
<p>Of course there are potential risks, both for individual institutions and also to UK higher education as a global brand. That means that the panel has to get the process right, and navigate a route through a complicated mass of data on a diverse sector.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145234/original/image-20161109-19089-v30enl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145234/original/image-20161109-19089-v30enl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145234/original/image-20161109-19089-v30enl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145234/original/image-20161109-19089-v30enl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145234/original/image-20161109-19089-v30enl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145234/original/image-20161109-19089-v30enl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/145234/original/image-20161109-19089-v30enl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The TEF could change the way students think about higher education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Much of the initial work has been focused on understanding and responding to sector concerns, and these matter a lot. But there are other interests, too, which is why there is student representation on the TEF panel – because we need to be alert to student concerns about the overall quality of provision. So although it is important to reflect sector concerns, it is also necessary for the sector to recognise that universities matter to others, too. </p>
<p>There is no denying that the stakes in the TEF are high – high for government, high for universities and high for UK higher education. But if it is designed properly, and managed effectively, the TEF can give us the opportunity to celebrate excellence and provide a common way to think about how it develops.</p>
<p>And with more and more young people going to university, it becomes all the more important to develop a framework we can use to communicate clearly what is going on in university teaching.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Husbands is retained by the government to chair the TEF panel.</span></em></p>In praise of the teaching excellence framework.Chris Husbands, Vice Chancellor, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/625142016-07-14T16:06:39Z2016-07-14T16:06:39ZDear Justine Greening, here’s what you should do as education minister<p>As part of Theresa May’s reshuffle in her first full day as prime minister, Justine Greening <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36793920">was appointed</a> as the secretary of state for education. She will take charge at the Department for Education, which will <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/dfe-takes-skills-and-higher-education-major-government-shake">also assume responsibility</a> for higher education and skills, formerly within the remit of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. She is the first Conservative education secretary to have attended a comprehensive school. </p>
<p>As Greening takes up her new role, five experts at UCL’s Institute of Education set out what they think her priorities should be in higher education, school inspection, primary education, teacher training and further education. </p>
<h2>Higher education</h2>
<p><em>Simon Marginson, professor of international higher education, UCL</em></p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>A stable regulatory structure</strong> The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has served English higher education well in the public interest. Big changes to the way the sector is regulated have been proposed in a <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/highereducationandresearch.html">new Higher Education and Research Bill</a> currently making its way through parliament. It is crucial that the new regulatory mechanism is equally effective in providing for standards, good management and the effective use of scarce resources. The accumulated wisdom of the previous regulatory regime must be retained in the system.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Crucial Brexit issues</strong> It is urgent that students and staff receive firm guarantees on their long-term future in the UK and that – if necessary – a subsided scheme is introduced to replace two-way student movement under the existing <a href="https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/">Erasmus</a> exchange scheme. Brexit diminishes UK universities’ early access to the best research in Europe as well as sharply reducing income for research. Both are equally important. The problem is inescapable: a large scale government programme for research funding across all disciplines will be needed to fill the gap.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Beyond Europe</strong> Relations with emerging Asia and Latin America have now become more important. Greening will need to catalyse engagement with higher education in these world regions through both ministerial leadership and selective incentives.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Teaching Excellence</strong> Big <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-competitive-landscape-for-higher-education-confirmed-in-white-paper-59494">changes are afoot</a> in the way the quality of teaching is monitored and rewarded in universities. Greening must “hasten slowly” to put in place comparative measures that are educationally valid, leading to genuine improvements in learning over time. She must avoid proxy measures that turn the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/teaching-excellence-framework">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF) into a reputation race in which a nominal victory goes to institutions best equipped to manipulate the system, with little real improvement in learning taking place. It would also be a good idea to reconsider the proposal to link the TEF to state university funding. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Research Excellence</strong> The <a href="http://www.ref.ac.uk/">Research Excellence Framework</a> (REF) has become a back-patting exercise in which the rate of improvement in research quality is scarcely credible. More stringent international measures of the “world standard” are needed. The REF, next due in 2020, is also too <a href="https://theconversation.com/game-playing-of-the-ref-makes-it-an-incomplete-census-35707">readily gamed</a> by selective inclusion of research, and universities should be required to submit data based on all of their academic staff.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>School inspection</h2>
<p><em>Melanie Ehren, reader in educational improvement, UCL</em></p>
<p>Arrangements for the accountability and monitoring of Multi-Academy Trusts – groups of academies – and the schools they run need to be simplified and streamlined. Head teachers <a href="http://www.schoolinspections.eu/">have told us</a> that the different frameworks used can cause confusion over which areas the school needs to improve on. Greater collaboration is needed between the schools inspectorate Ofsted, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group">Regional Schools Commissioners</a> and the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/education-funding-agency">Education Funding Agency</a> in holding academies and their trust to account, with clear frameworks for evaluation, sharing of information, evaluating performance and supporting school improvement.</p>
<p>The arrangements need to address the functioning of the trust itself, not just the performance of its academies. New frameworks are needed which evaluate the quality of the trust in supporting school improvement. These should evaluate the added value of the partnership such as ensuring that children have a good transition from primary to secondary school, the effectiveness of joint professional development across a group of schools or the efficient financing of centralised back office services. </p>
<p>Such frameworks should be part of focused inspections and current reviews of trusts, and included in the monitoring frameworks of Regional Schools’ Commissioners. </p>
<h2>Primary education</h2>
<p><em>Dominic Wyse, professor, department of learning and leadership, UCL</em> </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Plan for a major review of England’s primary school national curriculum.</p></li>
<li><p>Move to national assessment based on national sampling rather than <a href="https://theconversation.com/stressed-out-the-psychological-effects-of-tests-on-primary-school-children-58913">high-stakes</a> competitive assessments for all primary school children. This would mean selecting a nationally representative group of pupils, using random selection, who undertake national assessments which are used as one basis for evaluating the success of teaching and learning.</p></li>
<li><p>As a matter of urgency, commission a review of English in the national curriculum, including investigating the damaging effects of the way grammar <a href="https://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/does-traditional-grammar-instruction-improve-childrens-writing-ability/#more-4632">is currently taught</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Fund a new initiative on creativity in primary education.</p></li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130577/original/image-20160714-23327-efm32t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130577/original/image-20160714-23327-efm32t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130577/original/image-20160714-23327-efm32t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130577/original/image-20160714-23327-efm32t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130577/original/image-20160714-23327-efm32t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130577/original/image-20160714-23327-efm32t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130577/original/image-20160714-23327-efm32t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Too much measuring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Smiltena/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Teacher training</h2>
<p><em>Clare Brooks, senior lecturer in education, UCL</em></p>
<p>I hope the new secretary of state will:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Recognise the contribution universities make to the development of professional teachers who have a solid knowledge base and a thorough understanding of what teaching involves.</p></li>
<li><p>Recognise the importance of the partnership between schools and higher education institutes in the initial and continuing education of teachers. Higher education institutes play a large role in school-based teacher education and schools contribute enormously to the Postgraduate Certificate in Education. </p></li>
<li><p>Consider the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/education/school/34990905.pdf">international evidence</a> which suggests that initial teacher education should comprise of a two-year integrated programme rather than a one-year programme with variable support afterwards. Newly-trained teachers and recently-trained teachers need ongoing specialist support.</p></li>
<li><p>Recognise the contribution of a range of <a href="https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/books/education-policy/research-and-policy-in-education/">research evidence</a> on improving teaching and learning.</p></li>
<li><p>Agree that all teachers should be educated to Master’s level. This enables them to engage thoughtfully with professional dilemmas, to diagnose problems effectively and to find solutions not just for tomorrow but well into the future.</p></li>
<li><p>The teacher education system needs stability. Please don’t change it again.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Further education</h2>
<p><em>Ann Hodgson, professor of post compulsory education, UCL</em></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.gatsby.org.uk/uploads/education/reports/pdf/report-of-the-independent-panel-on-technical-education.pdf">Sainsbury Review</a> of technical education and the government’s response to it in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/536043/Post-16_Skills_Plan.pdf">Post-16 Skills Plan</a> recognised the strong and clear role for further education colleges and not-for-profit training providers in technical education and apprenticeships. Yet, building a strong technical education system requires considerably more funding than has been the case for further education programmes to date and the Post-16 Skills Plan hedges its bets on this score.</p>
<p>Greening’s new department will need to do considerable and careful work to design the new technical programmes, as well as the all-important <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-a-levels-arent-for-you-choices-at-age-16-could-now-get-a-whole-lot-simpler-62294">transition year and bridging courses</a> that potentially allow for progression and the ability to transfer between academic and technical programmes and apprenticeships. </p>
<p>It is very important that the new Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education makes full use of the experience and expertise of the educational practitioners who will be implementing these reforms with real learners in different local contexts, as well as satisfying the needs of national employers and professional associations. We have been here before (remember the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11407563">unfortunate 14-19 diplomas</a> which were discontinued after 2010 when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition came to power). So getting it right this time requires the involvement of all those who will be affected by the changes. </p>
<p><em>This article also appears on the <a href="https://ioelondonblog.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/dear-secretary-of-state-for-education/">IOE London blog</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Ehren has received funding from the EU/KA2 programme. She is on the sponsor board of the UCL Academy. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Marginson receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for the ESRC/HEFCE Centre for Global Higher Education. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann Hodgson, Clare Brooks, and Dominic Wyse do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Advice from five education academics on what the new secretary of state should prioritise.Dominic Wyse, Professor, Department of Early Years and Primary Education, UCLAnn Hodgson, Professor of Post Compulsory Education, UCLClare Brooks, Senior Lecturer in Education, UCLMelanie Ehren, Reader in Educational Improvement, Institute of Education, UCLSimon Marginson, Professor of International Higher Education, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/616982016-06-28T10:48:17Z2016-06-28T10:48:17ZBrexit: the aftermath for universities and students<p>The UK’s vote to leave the European Union has been met with shock and apprehension by universities, academics and students across the country. University leaders became increasingly worried about the possibility of a Brexit as the poll neared, with three vice-chancellors giving their reasons to remain <a href="http://theconversation.com/insularity-is-not-the-way-forward-three-university-vice-chancellors-on-brexit-60660">here on The Conversation</a>. But now, with the result in and Britain destined to leave, what kind of future beckons for Britain’s universities?</p>
<h2>Research funding</h2>
<p>As a full member of the union, for the moment Britain still enjoys membership of the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.htm">European Research Area</a>, the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">Horizon 2020</a> research funding programme and a range of other research partnerships and initiatives. With the vote for Brexit, these relationships will – at some point in the future – cease. Some may be reconstituted, but it is hard to believe this will happen on the same preferential terms <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/25/europe-prepares-fast-and-painful-deal-for-britain/">given widespread reluctance</a> among EU leaders (fearful of further secessions) to be seen to be giving Britain a good deal.</p>
<p>It is true that Horizon 2020 is open to non-EU members – for example it <a href="http://www.iserd.org.il/?CategoryID=179">includes Israel</a>, which has a <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?lg=en&pg=israel">long history</a> of collaboration with EU research. But access to these programmes is often highly political and in my opinion, it is difficult to envisage the UK – a much bigger higher education system than Israel’s, for example – being able to access the programme on the same terms currently offered to non-EU members. This is particularly the case, given the Leave lobby’s opposition to free movement to the UK, an issue which has restricted Switzerland’s associate membership of Horizon but which is not relevant to other members such as Israel or Armenia.</p>
<p>Current associate members of Horizon such as Serbia, Montenegro and Albania are working towards EU membership, while Norway is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), which allows free movement of people. While some Vote Leave leaders <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/06/tory-brexiter-daniel-hannan-leave-campaign-never-promised-radical-decline">have been quick to say that free movement wouldn’t be restricted post-Brexit</a>, it is highly questionable whether Britain will be allowed access to the EEA, or whether the British public could be convinced of this option – given that this would be unlikely to reduce immigration.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128311/original/image-20160627-28388-1hd3fvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Testing times for research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suwit Ngaokaew/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>None of the Horizon associate members remotely compare in scale to the UK’s research power. The former EU Commission president Juan Manuel Barroso <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/brexit-the-perks-and-pitfalls-for-higher-education">remarked in 2015</a> that the UK is receiving more than what its economic or demographic dimension would entitle it to receive in terms of EU research funding. In 2014-15, <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2016/economic-impact-of-eu-research-funding-in-uk-universities.pdf">according to Universities UK</a>, universities attracted more than £836m in research grants and contracts from the EU. It would appear unlikely that the UK could continue to punch above its weight in these terms once it is outside the union.</p>
<p>There is no guarantee, as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/eu-referendum-result-uk-universities-brexit-remain-leave-student-higher-education-sector-a7101846.html">some have argued</a>, that the government will make up any future shortfall in research funding. Higher education does not exist in a vacuum and the long-term economic prospects of the UK are now in serious question. </p>
<h2>Student experience and teaching</h2>
<p>The future of the ERASMUS student exchange scheme, <a href="http://theconversation.com/insularity-is-not-the-way-forward-three-university-vice-chancellors-on-brexit-60660">from which 200,000 UK students have benefited</a>, is uncertain as far as British students are concerned. It is also perhaps inevitable that the UK – having rejected the European Union in a bitter campaign marked by significant anti-immigrant rhetoric – should become a less appealing destination for EU students, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/06/22/whats-stake-higher-ed-brexit-vote">who currently make up 5% of students at UK universities</a>. </p>
<p>More than this, the funding settlement whereby EU undergraduates pay fees at the home rate of £9,000 a year (and are able to access the same preferential loans as UK students, albeit with a new residency requirement for maintenance loans from this August) will end at some point. This may possibly be as early as 2017-2018, although the <a href="http://www.slc.co.uk/media/latest-news/eu-nationals-and-student-finance-in-england.aspx">Student Loans Company moved</a> quickly to note that the financial settlement will remain unchanged for existing students and current applicants. </p>
<p>This follows moves by individual institutions, such as UCL, to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/eu-referendum-result-brexit-leave-remain-higher-education-sector-students-a7100106.html">guarantee</a> current EU students’ fee rates. There is no certainty that a parallel settlement comparable to the original one will be put in place.</p>
<p>Taken together, this will pose challenges to universities with high EU student intakes, as well as <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/unlimited-student-recruitment-transforms-english-universities">those that had been hoping to</a> increase EU student intake now that controls on student numbers have been lifted. </p>
<p>Students’ teaching may also be affected. It is highly likely that a proportion of EU academics <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/brain-drain-brexit-universities-science-academics-referendum-eu-a7100266.html">will choose to leave</a> UK higher education and return to their countries of origin, or move to other EU states. Of academics working in British universities, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/06/22/whats-stake-higher-ed-brexit-vote">15% originate</a> from other EU member states. </p>
<p>A number have issued <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/series/academics-anonymous">prominent statements</a> that they are now considering leaving the UK given pervasive anti-immigrant rhetoric. European universities will also make job offers <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeSav47032563/status/746263548775534592">to “star”</a> British names potentially uncomfortable with the outcome of the referendum. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"746263548775534592"}"></div></p>
<h2>Higher education reform</h2>
<p>There may be some cause for optimism, however, for those opposed to the government’s ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-competitive-landscape-for-higher-education-confirmed-in-white-paper-59494">higher education reforms</a>. It is likely that they will, at least temporarily, be derailed. Though the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/higher-education-and-research-bill">Higher Education Bill</a> is already before the House of Commons, the executive was woefully unprepared for a leave vote in the referendum. </p>
<p>Civil servants in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and beyond will have bigger fish to fry over the next two years than developing the new <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/teaching-excellence-framework">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF), implementing the new governance arrangements or completing the transition to a marketised system. The University of Warwick’s vice-chancellor Stuart Croft has <a href="http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/vco/blog/">called for the higher education reforms to be postponed</a>. Governmental overload, or its very collapse, may ensure that’s exactly what happens. </p>
<p>Britain is in the middle of an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Universities matter to government and are a real factor, in government-speak, of achieving “success in a knowledge economy”. But they are not more important than trade or inward investment, securing export markets, or preventing the collapse of the territorial integrity of the union. In short, higher education will have to wait in (a very long) line.</p>
<p>The task before Britain’s university system is to secure its position in the global higher education sector even as the status and economic firepower of the host nation state diminishes, or – in the event of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/scottish-independence-back-in-play-after-brexit-shock-with-a-note-of-caution-61457">independent Scotland </a>– simply falls apart.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Finn is a member of the Labour Party, the Co-Operative Party and Universities and Colleges Union.</span></em></p>What leaving the EU means for research, student experience and higher education reforms.Mike Finn, Principal Teaching Fellow, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/600312016-06-09T10:19:13Z2016-06-09T10:19:13ZPower to the students: how the nature of higher education is changing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125740/original/image-20160608-3509-718bty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Kneschke/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A large majority of UK undergraduates are satisfied with their university course, according to the results of an annual survey of 15,000 full-time students. But the <a href="http://www.hepi.ac.uk/2016/06/09/students-demand-better-value-money-nine-10-students-not-want-higher-fees/">2016 student academic experience survey</a> found perceptions of “good value for money” are in decline, indicating that students are becoming more demanding. </p>
<p>This year, only 37% of students felt they get value for money at their university, compared to 53% in 2012. And 86% do not want to see higher student fees, even where an excellent experience can be demonstrated.</p>
<p>Measuring the student experience is a central theme in the Conservative government’s new higher education <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/523546/bis-16-265-success-as-a-knowledge-economy-web.pdf">white paper</a>, where students are regarded as consumers. The proposed reforms include the creation of a new industry regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), with a remit to act in the interests of students by ensuring competition and choice as well as assessing quality and standards across higher education. </p>
<p>But the reforms go much deeper than merely rebranding a sector agency – they involve several serious measures designed to give students, as consumers, much greater control.</p>
<h2>Putting excellence into practice</h2>
<p>This can be seen in the creation of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/teaching-excellence-framework">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF), which will give more power to consumers by helping applicants make a more informed choice. The TEF results seek to provide comparable information on the quality of teaching at different universities, which has not been available in the past. </p>
<p>Asking universities to report on the quality of their teaching, the support they offer students and the employability of their graduates not only provides information for consumers, it also encourages universities to make performing well on these issues a much higher priority. </p>
<p>Following consultation on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-teaching-excellence-framework-will-work-50323">green paper</a>, the full TEF has been moved back one year to allow lessons to be learned from a pilot year. Allowing universities to make additional above-inflation increases in undergraduate fees based on TEF results has been moved even further into the future. This means large variations in fees between universities won’t emerge for several years.</p>
<p>New metrics are being developed for later years of the TEF, including a new dataset using tax records to show actual <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-your-choice-of-degree-means-for-your-future-earnings-57760">graduate earnings</a>. Pilots within certain disciplines will be undertaken to help the TEF drill down to the level of individual subjects. </p>
<h2>Fast tracking</h2>
<p>The white paper is accompanied by two technical consultations. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/teaching-excellence-framework-year-2-technical-consultation">first</a> deals with the details of the TEF, explaining how it will eventually be extended to taught postgraduate courses, for example. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/accelerated-courses-and-switching-university-or-degree-call-for-evidence">second</a> explores the viability of two other schemes to increase student choice: accelerated courses and switching universities.</p>
<p>Accelerated or <a href="http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/choosing-university/fast-track-degree-programs">fast-track</a> courses are typically <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/university-challenge-does-a-two-year-degree-make-more-economic-sense-2037887.html">two-year degrees</a>, where a traditional three-year degree is completed in two years by attending over the summer. The government wants the higher education sector to offer more flexibility and appreciate that all students may not want the standard three-year undergraduate experience.</p>
<p>Since <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/student/into-university/applying/are-two-year-degrees-the-future-796034.html">their introduction</a>, the demand for two-year degrees has remained relatively small; although this may be because the current choice of courses available is quite limited. Accelerated learning <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/aug/03/vince-cable-two-year-degrees">has been criticised</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2010.520698">questioned</a> by those who argue it means fewer opportunities for reflection that fosters a better understanding of a subject. Two-year degrees have been condemned by <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/3722/UCU-policy-briefing-Two-year-degrees-Feb-10/doc/ucupolicybrief_2yrdegrees_feb10.doc">campus trade unions</a> who describe them as “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10195353">sweatshops</a>” for university teachers.</p>
<p>The government also wants to see how the <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-it-be-easier-for-students-to-switch-university-mid-degree-59714">process of switching</a> universities could be made easier. The TEF results may be useful for applicants who are yet to make their choice, but they aren’t useful for students already studying whose personal circumstances <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11390399/University-students-facing-unlawful-course-changes.html">or course</a> may have changed if they cannot easily “vote with their feet” and go elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Power to switch</h2>
<p>The government wants a system where the money follows the student, enabling students to switch universities rather than being locked into one place. To make this work, they envision a “credit transfer market” where students can take credit from their existing university to another that better fits their current needs.</p>
<p>Even if the number of transferring students was small, a credit transfer market would increase the power of students as consumer by challenging the entrenched idea that university choice is a “one-off purchase”. Another reason the government wants to do this is because it foresees a situation in the new marketplace where some providers may close down. Ensuring the stranded students affected can complete their degrees elsewhere needs to be considered.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125744/original/image-20160608-3492-16dlm03.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In the US, switching course is common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/shawncalhoun/11360545156/sizes/l">shawncalhoun/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In the US, <a href="http://www.collegetransfer.net">student transfers</a> are the norm, and the numbers are on the rise. A <a href="http://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport9/">recent report</a> found that over one third of students who began their studies in 2008 transferred to a different institution at least once. Out of these students, almost half changed their institution more than once. But the US context is quite different to English higher education. For example, the Wisconsin system of community colleges and universities is one entity where credit has common currency and students move from associate to bachelor degrees. </p>
<p>Yet Australian higher education, which is more comparable, shows how it is possible to make transfers between universities easier by having <a href="http://www.aqf.edu.au/aqf/about/what-is-the-aqf/">a national framework</a> and more visible and straightforward policies within each institution. </p>
<p>The reforms show the government’s resolute determination to achieve greater competition and choice in higher education. These are reforms that seek to shift the balance of power to ensure the higher education sector delivers what students wish to receive, rather than what universities wish to offer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gunn receives funding from Worldwide Universities Network, the British Council (administering the Newton Fund), the UK Higher Education Academy, the United Kingdom Political Studies Association, the New Zealand Political Studies Association and the UK Quality Assurance Agency. Andrew Gunn concurrently holds visiting academic positions internationally. </span></em></p>What students want is becoming more important than what univerisites want to teach them.Andrew Gunn, Researcher in Higher Education Policy, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/592712016-05-18T13:41:12Z2016-05-18T13:41:12ZWhat metrics don’t tell us about the way students learn<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122869/original/image-20160517-9509-ehug69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/loughboroughuniversitylibrary/3256108502/sizes/l">Loughborough University/www.flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A big push is under way in higher education to measure how students are learning and how good lecturers are at teaching them. Universities can track how much time a student spent on a learning module or how often they accessed a journal article or online book. <a href="https://theconversation.com/snooping-professor-or-friendly-don-the-ethics-of-university-learning-analytics-23636">Some universities</a> are starting to use these “learning analytics” to study how students are accessing data. But that is currently all they can do – because of the limits of using this kind of “big data” to measure the effectiveness of teaching and learning.</p>
<p>In the UK, the government has <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-competitive-landscape-for-higher-education-confirmed-in-white-paper-59494">confirmed plans</a> to measure teaching excellence at universities in England via a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The Queen’s Speech <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524040/Queen_s_Speech_2016_background_notes_.pdf">revealed</a> that a new Higher Education and Research Bill will be introduced to take forward regulation around the ideas set out in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/523396/bis-16-265-success-as-a-knowledge-economy.pdf">higher education white paper</a>. </p>
<p>Currently, the TEF plans to align teaching excellence to university’s scores on the <a href="http://www.thestudentsurvey.com/">National Student Survey</a>, data on how many students finish their course from the <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/">Higher Education Statistics Agency</a>, and on the proportion of graduates in employment using a survey of students <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/stats-dlhe">conducted six months</a> after they leave university. </p>
<p>Universities will also be able to submit qualitative and quantitative evidence of up to 15 pages to explain and contextualise their metrics. This is where it gets sticky: will the people with the highest quality teaching and learning shine through or will the people with the best stories and prettiest data win in the end? </p>
<p>The fluidity of metrics allows for more wiggle room than the government thinks and that wiggle room will allow for gaming the new system, no matter what the white paper claims. For example, there is the possibility of <a href="https://www.hobsons.com/emea/resources/entry/learning-analytics-more-than-just-weather-forecasting">linking data</a> that measures what has happened with events that may or may not be related – such as tracking a student’s participation in online discussions and their ratings of the way their lecturers use technology.</p>
<h2>What metrics miss out</h2>
<p>Yet teaching and learning are more than just analytics. It is not possible to measure good teaching by simply looking at lecture attendance or examining how many pages a student read on an e-text. </p>
<p>Current practices in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/09/big-data-was-supposed-to-fix-education-it-didnt-its-time-for-small-data/">learning analytics are focused on exploring big data</a>, something that students produce <em>en masse</em>. One example of this is keeping track of attendance at lectures, correlating that with the number of hours spent reading an e-textbook, and using that data to predict success on a specific assessment. This can’t be linked to employability, nor can it be linked to the relative excellence of the instructor. Likewise, teaching intensity cannot be linked to a specific number of hours or type of teaching style. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123022/original/image-20160518-13487-113lhg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/123022/original/image-20160518-13487-113lhg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123022/original/image-20160518-13487-113lhg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123022/original/image-20160518-13487-113lhg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123022/original/image-20160518-13487-113lhg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123022/original/image-20160518-13487-113lhg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/123022/original/image-20160518-13487-113lhg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What makes a great teacher?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matej Kastelic/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research into learning analytics is growing <a href="http://lak16.solaresearch.org">apace</a> but is still nascent – so it is a problem that politicians have decided to use it as a promised messiah to define and measure excellence. </p>
<p>This is not to say that learning analytics are not useful – they are very good at doing specific things that can possibly improve the student experience. For example, metrics can identify students who do not access the class materials or attend the lectures. These students can be taken aside and asked if they need additional support. </p>
<p>But here is the conundrum: there is no empirical data that says that all students who display these behaviours need additional support. Learning analytics are increasingly being seen as a universal panacea <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/universities-should-set-targets-recruiting-male-students">for anything that may ail education</a>. But this has not proven true in the last ten years: we have terabytes of big data on student learning but very little empirical research on its actual impact. Outputs and outcomes in terms of lectures attended are not measures of impact on the individual lives of university students. </p>
<p>The introduction of learning analytics as a measure of teaching excellence will have one definitive outcome: spurious correlations. Lest we forget, <a href="https://xkcd.com/552/">correlation does not equal causation</a> and the best that learning analytics can currently do is correlate that more years of completed education correlate to a higher graduate earning potential. That is not enough to undermine the years of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2011.598505#.VzthNatHOKI">educational research</a> that stresses the importance of relationships and presence of teachers in the classroom. </p>
<h2>Game on</h2>
<p>Suggesting that universities use solely qualitative measures to examine teaching and learning is not practical, but there needs to be a balance between what the statistics may reveal and the actual teaching and learning experience. </p>
<p>The government has charged the Higher Education Funding Council for England – now to be subsumed into <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-competitive-landscape-for-higher-education-confirmed-in-white-paper-59494">a new body </a> called UK Research and Innovation – with the task of developing a system of checks and balances to measure teaching excellence so that universities do not try and game the system. These measures are slated to go live in year three of the TEF roll out. </p>
<p>The next three years are likely to see a rash of university policy and practice that will not encourage collegiality – nor will it help to build bridges between innovative teaching practice and quality learning. Instead it may produce the same <a href="https://theconversation.com/game-playing-of-the-ref-makes-it-an-incomplete-census-35707">wheeling and dealing</a> that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/research-excellence-framework">Research Excellence Framework</a> does, except this will be much more frequent. The game has officially changed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59271/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Ruggiero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Plans to reward universities for excellent teaching could see a bigger role for metrics that track how students spend their time.Dana Ruggiero, Senior Lecturer in Learning Technology, Bath Spa UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/594942016-05-17T10:27:17Z2016-05-17T10:27:17ZNew competitive landscape for higher education confirmed in white paper<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122823/original/image-20160517-9501-12b9yet.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nottinghamtrentuni/5689846734/sizes/o/">Nottingham Trent University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government has published detail of sweeping changes to the architecture of higher education and research in the UK in a new white paper. The document, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/523396/bis-16-265-success-as-a-knowledge-economy.pdf">Succeeding as a Knowledge Economy</a>, takes forward most of the ideas already found in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/higher-education-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice">green paper</a> published in November 2015. Legislation is likely to follow to enact a number of the proposed changes, not least to the regulatory oversight of the sector.</p>
<p>Plans for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/teaching-excellence-framework">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF), which will reward universities for good teaching with the ability to raise tuition fees above £9,000 a year, have now been slightly rejigged. More time will be allowed to fine tune how it will work and there will be a trial year in 2017-18. </p>
<p>There will be a simpler link permitting tuition fee rises in line with the retail price index for those universities doing well in the first parts of the scheme. This will extend gradually over a number of higher levels – rated “meets expectations, excellent and outstanding” – but the main incentive for universities to get a better rating will be to gain a reputational advantage, rather than a financial one. </p>
<h2>Out with the old?</h2>
<p>If there is anything resembling a new policy in the white paper (at least in comparison with the green paper) it is the invitation to both old and new institutions to choose their operating model and forms of government support. They may decide to become a private company, some form of corporation, or maybe simply renounce charitable status. This raises possibilities about mergers across the so-called dividing line between the two categories of “existing” and “alternative providers”. </p>
<p>The government clearly believes in and welcomes the possibility that some of the new upstarts will seek to take over or at least merge with those established providers that begin to wilt in the new competitive environment. </p>
<p>The white paper regards “exits” by incumbents from the sector as a healthy outcome in markets reflecting informed consumer choice. But it’s possible that some elite research universities might also look at this proposition and wonder if the best route to raise their undergraduate fee levels above the price of inflation is to go properly private – rather than rely on the small incremental moves permitted as part of the TEF. </p>
<h2>Future of the dual-funding system</h2>
<p>Although the green paper was relatively light on research policy, it did raise important questions, particularly on how research would be funded in the future. A key question was the future of the dual-funding system of research, through which grants are made to scholars by the research councils on the one hand, with additional government funding allocated to universities by the <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/">Higher Education Council for England</a> (HEFCE) following an assessment of the quality of their research – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/research-excellence-framework">Research Excellence Framework</a> process. </p>
<p>The white paper confirmed that HEFCE will be abolished – and a new unified entity, UK Research and Innovation, is to be established. This followed recommendations <a href="https://theconversation.com/research-funding-big-changes-on-the-horizon-leave-scientists-nervous-51057">made in a review of research</a> by <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nurse-review-of-research-councils-recommendations">Paul Nurse</a> that the seven research councils be amalgamated. It is this body that will take over HEFCE’s research funding responsibilities.</p>
<p>This is a little strange. Although the government professes to be strengthening the dual support system for research, rolling it all into one body nonetheless continues the questions about dual funding’s longer-term future.</p>
<p>UK Research and Innovation will also have to consider other important matters once it gets going, not just the future of the dual support system. For example, whether charities and private bodies will become eligible for public research funds as part of the government’s intention in the white paper to create incentives for multidisciplinary work and commercial collaboration. It’s possible this may have a knock-on effect on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-impact-on-the-ref-35636">“impact” of research</a>, making definitions less academic and more related to “real world” applications.</p>
<h2>Easier entry for newcomers</h2>
<p>As expected, new or alternative providers should find life a little easier. They will be allowed probationary degree-awarding powers from the get go, as opposed to the current wait of up to six years for full powers. Or, at least, “high quality” organisations will – however that is later defined. Smaller specialist institutions will have more incentive to consider aiming for university designation now that institutions no longer have to reach a fixed number of students to be considered.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122822/original/image-20160517-9487-vmv422.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122822/original/image-20160517-9487-vmv422.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122822/original/image-20160517-9487-vmv422.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122822/original/image-20160517-9487-vmv422.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122822/original/image-20160517-9487-vmv422.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122822/original/image-20160517-9487-vmv422.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122822/original/image-20160517-9487-vmv422.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Battle for better teaching.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ioelondon/6143379343/sizes/l">UCL IOE</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether the possibility of gaining “degree powers light” will help unfreeze the current icy path to validation experienced by new entrants remains to be seen. At the moment, existing universities understandably regard new providers as fresh competition, and so partnerships between old and new are designated as risky forms of collaboration by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.</p>
<p>Injecting more market competition into the sector could actually make the chill much worse as new entrants are now fully incentivised to become “challenger” institutions.</p>
<p>Although evidence is needed, new providers, because of resources and status constraints, can be quite conservative in their teaching approaches and to the subjects offered – despite the white paper’s claim that they provide much needed “innovation”. Yet, speaking from my experience as the chair of governors of a new provider, they do appear to reach aspirant sections of the population that do not make it to the existing “old” institutions. So access and social mobility should be enhanced by these moves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger King is chair of governors of UKCBC, a private new HE college, and is a member of the Higher Education Commission.</span></em></p>Universities deemed excellent at teaching will be allowed to raise their fees in line with inflation.Roger King, Visiting Professor, School of Management, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/530082016-01-13T09:44:09Z2016-01-13T09:44:09ZMixed market messages: the cost of reforming British universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107884/original/image-20160112-7002-3rklz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reforms to universities are a contradiction in terms. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecture via Matej Kastelic/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One thing is clear about the government’s recent proposals to reform higher education: they will shape and sculpt the UK’s higher education system for the foreseeable future – but at what cost?</p>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474227/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice.pdf">Fulfilling our Potential</a> green paper, published in November, the government set out how it wants to both control the price of higher education, through tuition fees, and determine the quality of teaching through a proposed <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/teaching-excellence-framework">Teaching Excellence Framework</a> (TEF), which plans to reward universities with the best quality teaching. The overall objective is to improve the quality of teaching in universities, as well as the esteem associated with teaching, and enhance social mobility.</p>
<p>These are laudable and valuable objectives, but the government’s strategy for achieving them is riven with contradictions. </p>
<p>Imagine a world where you wanted to buy a shirt. Now imagine that the government has set a maximum price for all shirts of £25, regardless of colour, size, shape or quality – from Prada to Primark, from Spandex to silk. All shops are selling all shirts at the same price. Now imagine that the government decides to introduce a way to measure the quality of shirts, even though they all cost £25.</p>
<p>Now substitute your shirt for higher education and the cap on tuition fees and we begin to see the inherent contradiction at the heart of the proposed reforms. The government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474227/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice.pdf">has stated</a> a commitment to “an open, market-based and affordable system with more competition and innovation”. If the government believes that higher education should be “market-based” then the logical place to start is by removing the cap on student fees. </p>
<h2>Unmaking a market</h2>
<p>The market will, in time, adjust – universities providing higher quality education will charge more, and low-quality providers less – just as happens with shirts in real life. This is basic market economics.</p>
<p>Yet, if the government doesn’t believe in this approach, then the logical step is to lower the cap on student fees and for the state to take on a greater burden for the cost of higher education. Here – as the main “customer” – the government would be in its rights to regulate and influence the market to ensure it is getting high-quality provision on behalf of taxpayers.</p>
<p>As things stand, the government is committed to an open market but is simultaneously and unusually, compared to other sectors, trying to regulate both price and quality. </p>
<p>An analogous sector might be energy where there is also a strong public good argument that we need electricity, just as we need a trained work force. But even here, the regulator Ofgem, <a href="https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/domestic-consumers/how-ofgem-works-you">explicitly states</a> that it “does not regulate energy retail prices” and that its role is to “promote competition”, which they believe “acts as an effective mechanism to drive down prices and promote higher quality service”.</p>
<h2>Other ways to advance social mobility</h2>
<p>The capping of tuition fees is part of the desire to keep UK higher education affordable in order to enhance social mobility <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474266/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice-accessible.pdf">by pushing for</a> “better access, retention and progression for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented groups”. </p>
<p>This is a key initiative and should be applauded. But there is no need to achieve this through the fees cap – it could be achieved equally and effectively in other ways. For example, in a truly market-based higher education sector, universities could be forced to establish scholarships and other social mobility funds – perhaps through a tax on revenues – to help meet this aim.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107885/original/image-20160112-6996-1v7ul70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107885/original/image-20160112-6996-1v7ul70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107885/original/image-20160112-6996-1v7ul70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107885/original/image-20160112-6996-1v7ul70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107885/original/image-20160112-6996-1v7ul70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107885/original/image-20160112-6996-1v7ul70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107885/original/image-20160112-6996-1v7ul70.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Choosing a university is not like buying a t-shirt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">keantian/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There also seems to be an assumption at the heart of the proposals that the real customers of higher education – 17-year-olds (and their parents) – are unable to identify quality and that the information to support their decision-making is not available. The solution currently being proposed is for the government to provide a kite mark of quality and then “permit” universities to charge a little bit more (<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/osborne-signals-rise-9k-fee-cap-tef">in line with inflation</a>) if they meet the government’s quality threshold. </p>
<p>Yet, the proposal does not take into account the mass of information available to make such decisions – for example, various <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/universityguide">“good university guides”</a> published by national newspapers and, increasingly, apps that allow students to provide immediate feedback on lectures. There is no guarantee that better information will be provided in the future than is already available.</p>
<h2>Some universities may go private</h2>
<p>The consequences, intended or unintended, are that the government is trying to retain influence and control over the higher education market while simultaneously demanding that it is an open market with light touch regulation. </p>
<p>For institutions in that market, this is an unattractive and unappealing position to be in. Doubtless some – perhaps many – universities will begin to wonder what advantage they derive from staying in that market, particularly those institutions with excellent teaching and research. The obvious choice for these institutions is to decide to opt-out of the system and go private, allowing them to set their own standards and their own fees, beyond just the rate of inflation.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this will leave us with a two-tier sector and although we do not know precisely what this would look like, it is likely to take us away from the laudable objectives of the proposed reforms. If that is the case, it will come at a great financial and reputational cost to UK higher education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Grant has received funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England and others funders for research into higher education and science policy. </span></em></p>New proposals on the table for higher education are riven with contradictions.Jonathan Grant, Director, The Policy Institute and Professor of Public Policy, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/511612015-11-24T11:27:26Z2015-11-24T11:27:26ZThe value universities add to society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102876/original/image-20151123-18233-11bsxuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Making the case for state funding of universities. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Students via wavebreakmedia/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2015/aug/24/why-the-secrecy-mr-javid-tell-us-more-about-the-mckinsey-review">pointed</a> questions have been asked of universities about what value they add to the society that funds them. Would society suffer from lower levels of public expenditure in universities – and what would make greater public expenditure worthwhile? </p>
<p>To their credit, successive British governments have entertained a wide range of answers and strategies when addressing these questions. Ahead of a comprehensive government spending review on November 25, two major policy statements were published in just this spirit. </p>
<p>First, a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474227/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice.pdf">government green paper</a> on teaching excellence looked at the social value of academic training, followed by <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/478125/BIS-15-625-ensuring-a-successful-UK-research-endeavour.pdf">recommendations</a> by the president of the Royal Society, Paul Nurse, about the architecture of academic research funding. That these reports are quite different in conception and character points to a much deeper problem.</p>
<p>From the standpoint of the state’s balance sheet, a university is basically a provider of two or three social services: teaching, research and maybe the sort of thing that Americans call “extension”, such as public engagement and practical applications, which typically happen off campus. </p>
<p>Of course, the state is rightly concerned about all these things – but it understands them largely as separate matters. You would never guess from the state’s balance sheet that all of these services might be performed by the same entity, sometimes even by the same members of that entity – a university.</p>
<h2>Teacher-researchers</h2>
<p>Efforts to determine the value added by universities to society often fail to recognise the university’s corporate integrity. Yet university administrators are reminded of this point whenever they make an academic hiring decision. Academics do not simply teach and do research: they are teacher-researchers. It is the value added to society by nurturing this complex role that should be at the forefront of the state’s thinking about the criteria used to fund universities.</p>
<p>After all, even advanced technical training can be provided more efficiently than by attending university. There are also more efficient places to work to produce innovative research than a university. Nevertheless, the corporate integrity of the university rests on the idea that teaching and research should be conducted, if not by the same people, then at least by people in regular contact with each other. </p>
<p>It follows that the value added by universities to society should be judged by the difference that this idea makes to the quality of the training and research provided – with the understanding that the market is open to other providers specialising in either training or research exclusively.</p>
<p>A university-based education does more than just enable students to pass exams and acquire credentials. It exposes them to cutting edge research in their chosen field of study – even if that research is soon likely to render the “correct” answers they give on their exams obsolete.</p>
<p>University-based researchers take their work to be of value not merely to like-minded researchers but, at least in principle, to any interested intelligent person, including those sceptical of the fundamental premises of that research. These matters are reflected in, say, regularly updated course outlines and ongoing public engagement. But it would not necessarily be reflected in evaluations by students of their course lecturer or, for that matter, academic peer evaluation on which research publication is based. </p>
<p>So does such the teacher-researcher role add sufficient value to society to be worthy of sustained and dedicated funding? Flesh-and-blood academics all too often fall short of performing this distinctive hybrid role. But here the state’s balance sheet bears a major share of the blame. </p>
<p>As long as universities derive a significant part of their income from addressing teaching and research as separate matters, administrators will try to game the system to maximise each function separately in their hiring decisions and internal allocation of resources. </p>
<p>In effect, the university will <a href="https://theconversation.com/ranking-universities-on-excellent-teaching-will-be-better-for-everyone-44256">be segregated</a> into “teachers” and “researchers”, both on short term contracts and neither with an incentive to engage with the other’s activities. This tendency may be the biggest long-term threat to the university’s corporate integrity, insofar as the its unique selling point is its staff who are both teachers and researchers at once.</p>
<h2>Honour to Humboldt</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102874/original/image-20151123-18264-cl4mq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102874/original/image-20151123-18264-cl4mq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102874/original/image-20151123-18264-cl4mq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102874/original/image-20151123-18264-cl4mq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102874/original/image-20151123-18264-cl4mq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102874/original/image-20151123-18264-cl4mq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102874/original/image-20151123-18264-cl4mq8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prussian philosopher Wilheim von Humboldt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_von_Humboldt#/media/File:W.v.Humboldt.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But why should the state, as the custodian of society, be interested in sustaining the teacher-researcher role that underwrites the university’s corporate integrity? The answer is a version of the original one put forward by Wilhelm von Humboldt, the great philosopher-administrator of the modern university, 200 years ago. His <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Wilhelm-baron-von-Humboldt">vision</a> contributed to a successful strategy for propelling Germany onto the world stage at a time when it was playing catch-up with the economic and political innovations emanating from Britain and France.</p>
<p>There is much talk <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/mar/18/britain-needs-innovation-economy">among politicians</a> – but also increasingly scientists – about the need to foster a “climate of innovation”, but fidelity to the concept requires more than using the word “innovation” a lot and boosting each and every crazy idea to “paradigm-shifting” status. Rather, it involves the public’s exposure – both in and out of the classroom – to people who embody the dynamic rush of intellectual life yet manage to bring it into focus so as to live up to the Enlightenment motto: “Knowledge is power”. </p>
<p>These people – “academics” in Humboldt’s original sense – inspire by pointing the way forward. They routinely move others away from their comfort zones, as they move themselves from their own. It is in this deep sense that universities provide a “climate of innovation” which merits continued state support.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Fuller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As budgets get squeezed, universities are fighting to prove their worth.Steve Fuller, Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/504332015-11-09T17:25:11Z2015-11-09T17:25:11ZExplainer: new-look regulation on cards for higher education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101285/original/image-20151109-29297-1o8nefu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How will regulation be tied to funding in future?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lecture via Matej Kastelic/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities in the UK face a shakeup in the way they are regulated if proposals set out by the government in a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474227/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice.pdf">new green paper</a> go ahead as planned.</p>
<p>Alongside plans for a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-teaching-excellence-framework-will-work-50323">Teaching Excellence Framework</a>, to reward those universities home to the best teaching, the government aims to remove the long-established ties between regulatory authority and how much each university receives from the state. Instead, higher education is moving to a position found in many other sectors – where regulatory agencies operate under clear legal purposes, irrespective of how much money they hand out. </p>
<p>Personally, I welcome the proposal to merge the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) into a new Office for Students (OfS), and also to require institutions to make provision for consumer protection for students in the event of closures. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/hec/research/report-regulating-higher-education">Higher Education Commission</a>, whose inquiry and subsequent <a href="http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/hec/sites/site_hec/files/report/333/fieldreportdownload/hecommission-regulatinghighereducation.pdf">report</a> I co-chaired with Lord Norton in 2013, strongly argues for such measures. The move towards a more level regulatory playing field for providers, so that alternative providers are treated in ways similar to the well-established institutions who get their funding from HEFCE, is also strongly supported by the Commission. </p>
<h2>New ways to award degrees</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101284/original/image-20151109-29326-1szjnfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101284/original/image-20151109-29326-1szjnfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101284/original/image-20151109-29326-1szjnfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101284/original/image-20151109-29326-1szjnfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101284/original/image-20151109-29326-1szjnfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101284/original/image-20151109-29326-1szjnfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101284/original/image-20151109-29326-1szjnfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alternative providers could get an alternative way of handing out degrees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frannyanne/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The green paper actually goes further than the Commission did here. It rather imaginatively explores ways in which alternative university providers may be able to achieve degree-awarding powers and university title more readily and independently than now.</p>
<p>The paper’s proposal to consider the creation of an awarding and validating body that hands out degrees – without having to pass through a conventional university – is redolent of the approach of the old <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/cicp/main/validation/awards-and-aftercare/cnaa-pro-forma-verification/about-cnaa">Council for National Academic Awards</a> (CNAA). This worked well for the polytechnics in the 1970s and 1980s in guiding them to governing autonomy, degree-awarding status, and eventual university title. This suggestion should do much to speed up the competitive strength of the alternative providers as desired by the government.</p>
<p>Whether such a body is best situated within the new Office for Students, as proposed by the green paper, is more debatable. Perhaps it would be better if such an agency had clearly-defined autonomy and organisational “clean hands”, away from the other pressing concerns of the OfS. </p>
<h2>Not radical enough?</h2>
<p>In many ways, the document is rather conservative and could have taken the opportunity to highlight more radical options. For example, perhaps the Student Loans Company could also be folded into the OfS so that the money is commonly located. </p>
<p>There is also no real hint of the government’s view on whether the <a href="http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en">Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)</a> – which currently monitors quality in universities – should be abolished or retained. The green paper argues that, as a sector-owned body, it has no real authority or responsibility for QAA (leaving this matter to HEFCE and, in future, the new regulator). But this is rather ducking the issue. It is an important policy matter that we need to hear more about publicly from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).</p>
<p>The green paper also, commendably, aims to free up institutions that became universities after 1992 – known as post-1992 universities – to dissolve themselves and to transfer their assets. No doubt the aim is to aid mergers and possible amalgamations, including with new alternative higher education providers. </p>
<p>BIS suggests that the current “public interest” provisions in governance arrangements will still be required. Rather bizarrely, however, it suggests that if a university was not meeting this public interest, the sanction would be an impact on “continuing grant funding” for an institution. Yet, with the thrust of the green paper moving the sector away from regulatory authority that is linked to funding allocations, this is jarring.</p>
<p>The green paper also suggests that responsibility for the allocation of teaching grants, currently held by HEFCE, could move more directly to BIS rather than to the new OfS. This would enable government priorities to be reflected in any funding decisions.</p>
<h2>Ghosts in the green paper</h2>
<p>It is worth noting that the ghosts at this feast of a green paper (it is stultifying in its length), are the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/spending-review-launched-by-chancellor">Comprehensive Spending Review</a> and Autumn Statements to be made by chancellor George Osborne on November 25. </p>
<p>Questions remain on whether there are any assumptions being made in BIS and the Treasury about the savings that may accrue from the creation of the new OfS. There is also a possible danger that planned reductions in expenditure could restrict the regulatory functions and powers of the new regulator. </p>
<p>The proposals suggest institutions will pay for their regulation through a subscription model. BIS estimates that this will save £25m, perhaps a rather modest if unwelcome contribution by the higher education sector to reducing the national public expenditure deficit. </p>
<p>Although we find that regulators in other sectors, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-versus-public-interest-in-battle-over-press-regulation-50114">the press</a>, are often funded through a subscription or levy on those being regulated, this is often accompanied by at least a modicum of co-regulation between the agency and the sector itself. </p>
<p>In this instance, the government envisages the OfS as operating much as HEFCE has done, as a statutory body with the “intermediary” role very much balanced towards the interests of government. If institutions – as subscribers – start to pay for the privilege of being regulated, will the OfS regard institutions as its “customers”? After all, this is the overall tenor of the higher education reforms. </p>
<p>In which case, how much is the regulatory function likely to be compromised by customers being “at the heart of the system” and bridling at any regulatory reining-in of their activities?</p>
<p>You take consumerism far enough and you can begin to regret what you wished for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger King is affiliated with the Higher Education Commission and was co-chair of its inquiry 'Regulating the new landscape of higher education. He is also chair of the board of governors at UK College of Business and Computing (UKCBC), an alternative provider. </span></em></p>A new government green paper has proposed a raft of reforms for regulating higher education.Roger King, Visiting Professor, School of Management, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/503232015-11-06T17:18:39Z2015-11-06T17:18:39ZHow the Teaching Excellence Framework will work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101096/original/image-20151106-16263-1vnoq19.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The best teachers will now be highly sought after. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The details of how the government proposes to introduce a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to monitor the quality of teaching at universities have been revealed in a new green paper on higher education.</p>
<p>The paper, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/474227/BIS-15-623-fulfilling-our-potential-teaching-excellence-social-mobility-and-student-choice.pdf">Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice</a>, sets out how those universities which provide excellent teaching, and give the best employment prospects to their graduates, will be able to raise their fees higher than the current maximum of £9,000, in line with inflation. </p>
<p>Alongside the Teaching Excellence Framework, the paper launches a consultation on a range of issues including efforts to raise the number of disadvantaged students attending university and the processes for establishing new universities. It also proposes the merger of two existing bodies – the <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/">Higher Education Funding Council</a> (HEFCE) and the <a href="https://www.offa.org.uk/">Office for Fair Access</a> – to create a new Office for Students. </p>
<p>As this is a green paper, rather than a white paper, there will still be scope for revision before these changes appear in an expected Higher Education Bill in the next parliamentary session. </p>
<p>Launching the green paper, the universities minister Jo Johnson <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/student-choice-at-the-heart-of-new-higher-education-reforms">said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our ambition is to drive up the quality of teaching in our universities to ensure students and taxpayers get value for money and employers get graduates with the skills they need.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Different levels of excellence</h2>
<p>The government seeks to do this through creating stronger incentives for excellent teaching and providing students with more information about their courses, through the new TEF. This will evolve throughout the life of the current parliament, becoming more sophisticated as it progresses. </p>
<p>The first year of the TEF, which will launch in 2016-17, will be a streamlined approach based on a quality assessment review resulting in the award of “TEF Level 1”. This will be used to inform tuition fee rises for the following year, for students starting in September 2017. </p>
<p>This “pilot” TEF is not a high hurdle to jump which means most of the sector would be eligible to raise fees in line with inflation from 2017-18, indicating the government is now more relaxed than it had been <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-universities-will-have-to-pay-more-attention-to-the-quality-of-their-teaching-47186">previously</a> about controlling the number of universities allowed to raise fees.</p>
<p>From the second year onward, higher TEF Levels of 2, 3 and 4 will be available for universities to apply for. A technical consultation will take place in 2016 to work out the detail of these levels. </p>
<p>The green paper defines teaching excellence as: teaching quality, learning environment, student outcomes and learning gain. The TEF will therefore provide applicants with two types of information: not only on the type of teaching and learning experience they can expect on the course, but also their likely career paths after graduation. To achieve this, the TEF will need to involve a range of measures that span assessment of student satisfaction, their dropout rates from courses and their job prospects.</p>
<h2>Breaking teaching down by subject</h2>
<p>The assessment of all this will involve expert panels who will review the metrics and evidence supplied by the institution and make a judgement as to which TEF level to award. The panels will include academics, students and employer representatives. </p>
<p>Initially, the TEF results will only be institution wide – not broken down by departments. This limitation means the TEF will not appreciate the differentiation both between and within institutions. To address this, the green paper proposes the eventual creation of panels for each discipline area (similar to the units of assessment in the <a href="http://www.ref.ac.uk/">Research Excellence Framework</a>, which assess academic research) which would allow comparisons to be made between subject areas and courses at different universities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101097/original/image-20151106-16273-1lgwxl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101097/original/image-20151106-16273-1lgwxl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101097/original/image-20151106-16273-1lgwxl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101097/original/image-20151106-16273-1lgwxl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101097/original/image-20151106-16273-1lgwxl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101097/original/image-20151106-16273-1lgwxl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101097/original/image-20151106-16273-1lgwxl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What jobs graduates get will become even more important to universities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/134017849@N04/19516003308/sizes/l">QMULsed/www.flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The TEF will also be used to encourage universities to issue Grade Point Average (GPA) scores alongside the traditional degree classifications of a first or 2:1. The government is encouraging GPAs – to be awarded through a 13-point scale – as it says they provide employers more granular information on the performance of graduates across their degree, rather than just in final exams.</p>
<h2>Could fees go higher?</h2>
<p>Universities who apply and obtain the highest TEF levels would be rewarded with being allowed to further raise their fees – in line with inflation – in future years. </p>
<p>But considering the current low <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-panic-uk-deflation-is-nothing-more-than-a-blip-42059">inflation rate in the UK</a>, we are not talking about large increases. This may lead to pressure to allow fees to rise above inflation to give universities more of an incentive to take part in the TEF. The current Conservative government has remained silent on ruling out fee rises above inflation during this parliament. </p>
<p>The green paper does propose giving the secretary of state a new “power to set tuition fee caps”. The undergraduate fee level of a maximum £9,000 per year is currently decided by a vote in parliament so transferring this to ministers would make it easier for governments to raise fees in the future.</p>
<p>The TEF is just one of a raft of changes to the higher education architecture the government has proposed, and the sector will no doubt be vocal in its dialogue with the government during the consultation period, which ends on January 15.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gunn receives funding from Worldwide Universities Network, the British Council, the UK Higher Education Academy and the UK Quality Assurance Agency.</span></em></p>The government has unveiled proposals for a new system to reward universities for excellent teaching.Andrew Gunn, Researcher in Higher Education Policy, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/471862015-09-10T10:09:36Z2015-09-10T10:09:36ZWhy universities will have to pay more attention to the quality of their teaching<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94282/original/image-20150909-18637-mgwgy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rewarding the best teaching. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ucentralarkansas/4535060043/sizes/l">University of Central Arkansas</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Conservative government is moving fast to fulfil its <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/manifesto2015/ConservativeManifesto2015.pdf">manifesto pledge</a> to recognise those universities that offer the highest quality teaching. In July, the higher education minister Jo Johnson <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/teaching-at-the-heart-of-the-system">proposed</a> that a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) would be created to sit alongside the existing system that recognises research excellence at universities. </p>
<p>In a speech at the Universities UK annual conference on September 9, Johnson <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/higher-education-fulfilling-our-potential">said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This patchiness in the student experience within and between institutions cannot continue. There is extraordinary teaching that deserves greater recognition. And there is lamentable teaching that must be driven out of our system.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ongoing consultations on the way the TEF will be delivered will lead the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills to publish a green paper this autumn and decision-making on the framework as early as next spring. This short timeframe means the TEF can’t spend long on the drawing board in Whitehall before it is implemented.</p>
<h2>Giving students the choice</h2>
<p>As well as driving up the quality of teaching and enhancing its status within the university, a main driver of the TEF is to provide future undergraduate applicants with better information to help them make a decision on what and where to study. This is part of a Conservative party view of higher education policy where it is the role of government to foster more market-like characteristics in the system of undergraduate education.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94286/original/image-20150909-18669-klhbp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94286/original/image-20150909-18669-klhbp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94286/original/image-20150909-18669-klhbp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94286/original/image-20150909-18669-klhbp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94286/original/image-20150909-18669-klhbp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94286/original/image-20150909-18669-klhbp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94286/original/image-20150909-18669-klhbp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Informing their choices.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Students via Andresr/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This involves ensuring that student consumers have information to make an informed choice. The government argues that we need to know where teaching excellence is, because we need to be able tell potential students where they can find it, and they will make decisions about where to study accordingly.</p>
<p>To identify teaching excellence requires not just defining it, but also finding a way to measure it. Within the TEF, teaching refers to the whole “teaching function” of the university, encompassing the wider undergraduate education experience. A bundle of performance indicators focused on the outcomes of higher education will have to be selected to capture and convey teaching excellence. These could include contact time, staff-student ratios and student satisfaction. Whatever measures are used, critics will point to the problems of reducing down a higher education learning experience to a couple of indicators or metrics.</p>
<p>Creating a TEF to meet the ministers requirements, particularly in such a short space of time, will be challenging and there are a range of potential policy pitfalls. The minister has said he wants the TEF to be “proportionate and light touch, not big, bossy and bureaucratic”. However, a light-touch system may not produce sufficient robust information for applicants. And the burden for academics of even a light-touch system will be high, as universities are likely to make preparing for the TEF a priority to ensure they do well.</p>
<h2>Raising fees</h2>
<p>The stakes for universities will be high. If the TEF works as intended it will influence student demand. But there are also wider consequences for reputations and the TEF data will be crunched and used in league tables that determine university rankings. </p>
<p>However, the implications of the TEF go further than this. In his July budget the chancellor, George Osborne, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-budget-2015/summer-budget-2015">announced</a> that TEF scores should be used to determine which universities would be allowed to raise their undergraduate fees above the current £9,000 cap in line with inflation. Teaching excellence then featured in the governments productivity plan, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/443898/Productivity_Plan_web.pdf">Fixing the Foundations</a>, also published in July, which reaffirmed the commitment to link TEF results to future fee increases as early as 2017. </p>
<p>My understanding, from conversations I’ve had as part of my ongoing research on the TEF, is that it’s likely that from the 2017-18 academic year, only a small number of universities – those with the best results in the TEF – would be allowed to adjust their fees upwards in line with inflation. The exact number of universities or courses will be decided nearer the time. </p>
<p>This may produce some unforeseen consequences as higher education policy would be entering uncharted waters. The universities which may perform best in an evaluation of teaching may not be the same as those established players that always perform best in evaluations of research, such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/qanda-what-is-the-ref-and-how-is-the-quality-of-university-research-measured-35529">Research Excellence Framework</a>. Not letting established research universities raise their undergraduate fees, while other universities do, could be politically very difficult for the universities minister of the day.</p>
<p>The TEF may be used in other ways too. Speaking to Universities UK in September, Johnson indicated that the TEF could play a possible role in rewarding universities that succeed in graduating more students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is linked to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/higher-education-fulfilling-our-potential">a government target</a> to increase the number of black and minority ethnic students going to university by 20% by 2020 and similar targets for them to graduate and enter work. </p>
<p>The politics of the TEF – to have a performance measure for teaching and to link success in this to any tuition fee rises – are now settling into place. This creates the immediate policy challenge of deciding what teaching excellence actually is and how to measure it: no small undertaking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gunn receives funding from Worldwide Universities Network and the UK Higher Education Academy.</span></em></p>Universities are keenly awaiting more detail on the government’s planned Teaching Excellence Framework.Andrew Gunn, Researcher in Higher Education Policy, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/452522015-07-29T05:20:53Z2015-07-29T05:20:53ZHard Evidence: are universities strapped for cash?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89929/original/image-20150728-7650-1m0yvcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are universities counting their pennies?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Education fund via Lucian Milasan/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>English universities have known since June that there would be cuts to higher education funding. Now the amount and detail of the savings have been disseminated to universities: the sector must make a <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2015/CL,192015/">total saving of £150m</a>. Some have argued this is evidence that the sector is in “<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/blog/perpetual-financial-crisis-uk-higher-education">perpetual financial crisis</a>”. So what are the likely impacts of the latest round of cuts on universities and how will they manage their finances? </p>
<p>At first sight, the English higher education sector seems to have had reasonably steady income over the last few years. As the first graph below shows, in the period after the financial crisis, universities’ real income initially rose. Despite a dip between 2009-10 and 2011-12, it has been slowly rising since but has yet to recover to pre-2010 levels. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89937/original/image-20150728-7662-1vx2lwj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Income of English universities, £ billions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_pubs&task=show_pub_detail&pubid=1719&Itemid=286">HESA, Finances of Higher Education Providers</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Prepare for volatility</h2>
<p>It is important to look at the detail of where the £150m of cuts will now fall. The savings are to be made in the 2015-16 financial year (April to March), which overlaps two academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16. This means that universities are suddenly having to deal with a loss of income which they had expected to receive for both for the current academic year and the next. Government funding, which has historically provided universities with financial certainty and stability, is no longer a reliable source. </p>
<p>All cuts will come from the recurrent teaching grant, while universities’ grant for research will remain ring-fenced. Let’s take a step back and see how the importance of the recurrent teaching grant has changed in the composition of universities’ income over the past few years. From the second graph below we can see that in 2008-9, grants from funding bodies, which for English universities comes largely from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), were 33% of the sector’s total income. By 2013-14, following the introduction of undergraduate tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year in 2012-13, this percentage had dropped to only 18%. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89945/original/image-20150728-7668-1y9wppi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HESA, Finances of Higher Education Providers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, the money set aside for teaching within grants from the funding body has fallen from 65% of the total in 2008-9, to 51% in 2013-14, as the third graph below shows. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89946/original/image-20150728-13261-1xk4f64.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HESA, Finances of Higher Education Providers</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gauging student demand</h2>
<p>The flip-side of this is that tuition fees have become more important – rising from 32% of English universities’ income in 2008-9 to 47% in 2013-14. This move means universities are ever more open to the vagaries of market demand. Tuition fees come from undergraduate and postgraduate courses, both from home and EU students and those from overseas. </p>
<p>These overseas students have been a particularly lucrative source of income for universities as there is no cap on their numbers or the fees that they can be charged. But the overseas market is becoming increasingly competitive (for example, there was a <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2014/201426/">2% drop in international students</a> in the UK between 2011-12 and 2012-13) and this source of funding is becoming less predictable. </p>
<p>Because of this, the domestic student market is becoming more and more important to universities. But population changes in the UK mean that there will be fewer 18-20 years olds to take up places at university – <a href="http://www.policyconnect.org.uk/hec/sites/site_hec/files/report/391/fieldreportdownload/hecommissionreport-toogoodtofail.pdf">a fall of more than 12%</a> in 18-24 year olds is forecast between 2012 and 2021. So the tuition fee income on which universities have become much more reliant is, like government funding, likely to be volatile.</p>
<p>The chancellor <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/undergraduate-numbers-cap-to-be-abolished-osborne/2009667.article">George Osborne’s decision</a> to lift the cap on the number of students each university can admit, which comes into effect from September, could offer a glimmer of hope for universities. Universities can now recruit as many extra students as they want with the appropriate qualifications. When the plans were announced, it was originally intended that any extra student recruited would mean that the university would receive both the tuition fee and the usual associated HEFCE funding allocated to each student. </p>
<p>However, if we look at the detail of the £150m cuts, as set out in the table below, we can see that the money set aside by HEFCE for the increase in student numbers has been cut to achieve the overall saving.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89951/original/image-20150728-7671-w7dmvm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sources of HEFCE’s savings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2015/CL,192015/">HEFCE</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So universities can indeed increase the numbers of students they enrol (for example, through the clearing process after A-Level results are announced in mid August) – but institutions will only receive the tuition fee for these extra students, rather than any government funding. In the short term, at least, the temptation for universities will be to recruit extra students only from low-cost subjects, such as the humanities, to cross-subsidise students in the high-cost subjects, such as science.</p>
<h2>Test of resilience</h2>
<p>The higher education sector is in a potentially precarious situation with possibly large fluctuations in demand (and hence funding) from one year to the next. Are universities resilient enough to withstand these fluctuations? HEFCE’s own forecasts of the financial health of the sector between 2013-14 and 2016-17 <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2014/201426/">emphasises</a> the need for strong liquidity – the number of days for which a university’s cash reserves would cover their expenditure. As a sector, liquidity has strengthened over the recent years of uncertainty, as the graph below shows, but the forecast is for this to fall and for borrowing to increase. As HEFCE points out, this is “an unsustainable trajectory”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89947/original/image-20150728-13261-v0xcuu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Net liquidity and cash flow 2006-7 to 2016-17.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2014/201426/">HEFCE’s Financial Health of the Higher Education Sector: 2013-14 to 2016-17 Forecasts</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps more worrying, is that the picture for the overall sector conceals vastly different effects for different universities when it comes to student demand. Although the average increase for the sector in both domestic and EU students between 2012-13 and 2016-17 <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2014/201426/">is predicted</a> to be 5.5%, some universities could see numbers decline by more than 20%, while at others they could increase by more than 40%. </p>
<p>The irony of these cuts, however, is that they fly in the face of the laudable proposals made in June by the universities minister, Jo Johnson, for universities to be ranked and rewarded for their teaching excellence. Paradoxically entitled: “<a href="Teaching%20at%20the%20heart%20of%20the%20system">Teaching at the heart of the system</a>”, Johnson’s speech announced the development of a new Teaching Excellence Framework to shore up the quality of university teaching. </p>
<p>Yet teaching quality will be the first casualty of the changing funding regime as the lack of certainly in long-term planning will lead universities, in pursuit of flexibility, to employ more staff on short-term contracts. Some may even consider closing departments which experience dips in student demand and cannot be sustained.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Johnes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As universities swallow a £150m cut to their teaching budgets, are they in a stable financial position?Jill Johnes, Professor of Production Economics - Strategy, Marketing and Economics, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451972015-07-28T05:22:37Z2015-07-28T05:22:37ZAs they compete to lay on the best student experience, universities mustn’t forget the academic one too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89781/original/image-20150727-7650-lv0vk6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don't leave university without acquiring some knowledge. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Student in library via Ditty_about_summer/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The proposal for a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/jo-johnson-unveils-teaching-ref-plans">announced</a> by universities and science minister Jo Johnson in early July that would recognise “excellent teaching” and “make good teaching better” has been met with consternation among some in the higher education sector. Once the TEF is introduced, the government <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/osborne-signals-rise-9k-fee-cap-tef">has indicated</a> it might allow the highest-scoring institutions to raise tuition fees in line with inflation. </p>
<p>But other universities may have to do more with less. Johnson will be aware of the financial realities that has just led <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2015/Name,104720,en.html">his department to ask</a> the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to make £150m savings from university teaching budgets over the next two academic years. HEFCE chief executive Madeleine Atkins says that, despite the cuts, it will keep trying to support <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2015/Name,104720,en.html">“excellence in research, learning and teaching and a high-quality student experience”</a>. </p>
<p>What is distinctive and unique about the 21st-century university is just this focus on the student experience. Research by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa on “<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/study_finds_large_numbers_of_college_students_don_t_learn_much">academically adrift”</a> students has highlighted the shift within institutions’ priorities away from academic matters towards a concern with the personal, moral and social lives of students.</p>
<p>A marker of the change that has occurred is the competition between institutions to be seen as the “<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11519905/Top-universities-for-student-experience-the-list-in-full.html">best university for student experience</a>”. This has been reinforced through the proliferation of student satisfaction surveys across university life. </p>
<h2>Safety, not experimentation</h2>
<p>It is part of a wider, profound change within universities which really began in the late 1990s and has gradually come to regulate spontaneous student activities, often with a desire to ensure that they are “responsible” and take place within “safe spaces”. Before then, students took more risks and were unashamedly independent. If they made mistakes, they dealt with them themselves as part of growing up and wanted minimal or no help from the university. Students may still do some of these things but the atmosphere has changed: the emphasis is now on student safety rather than experimentation.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/infantilised-students-and-staff-rapped/402376.article">infantilised conception of students</a> has also spread to some students unions. Alongside banning many things or groups they feel might offend or upset students, they also organise <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/feb/06/safe-space-or-free-speech-crisis-debate-uk-universities">safe</a> and protective activities for students in parallel with the university bureaucracies. As a result, it has become hard to separate student unions from university management: neither of them treat students as adults. </p>
<p>Students unions, like university managers, often award certificates to the “most <a href="http://www.wlv.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-events/latest-news/2014/june-2014/award-for-inspirational-lecturer.php">inspirational</a>” lecturer and monitor the quality of “<a href="https://www.bathstudent.com/pageassets/education/events/SSLC-2014-PoLIS.pdf">feedback</a>” in order to improve the student experience.</p>
<h2>Content vs process</h2>
<p>This is the context in which the TEF will be introduced and it is likely to strengthen the shift towards making university teaching mere edutainment. </p>
<p>There are some units and centres aimed at developing learning in universities who believe in the importance of <a href="http://business.brookes.ac.uk/research/pedagogy/">innovative pedagogues</a> and who will probably embrace the TEF. But they are beleagured: they often have a hard time influencing the practices of most lecturers who are, rightly in my view, more interested in the content than the process of teaching.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89819/original/image-20150727-7668-1irr960.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">It doesn’t matter how you teach, the content is the same.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABBYDOG/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>For all the possible structural similarities between the TEF and the bureaucratic and stultifying process for measuring research excellence called the <a href="http://www.ref.ac.uk/">Research Excellence Framework</a> (REF), there is little comparison to be made between the two. The REF has gone some way into dividing universities and their academics into those institutions which are research-active and those which are relatively inactive. The TEF will go further and could consolidate the reorientation of universities around students, rather than knowledge.</p>
<p>The TEF won’t seem like a dangerous idea. It will be presented by universities as a rich opportunity to experiment with different ways of teaching. And as a real opportunity for student-centred institutions to celebrate their successes in teaching. They will want to do this in ways that are far more pedagogically radical and innovative than what they view as the old-fashioned, elitist and undemocratic traditions of lecturing and <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-oxbridge-tutorials-still-the-best-way-to-teach-students-how-to-think-44250">Oxford-style tutorials</a>. </p>
<p>But despite the fact that students will be treated as if they were hapless and hopeless and in need of flashier forms of teaching, students are no different than they used to be. Some may be turned off by this new trend and walk away. But tragically, many will only see the effects of this move towards “edutainment” much later, when they are what Arum and Roksa call “adults adrift”: when the damage is done and they discover that what they needed to develop as autonomous individuals who can be successful in their adult working lives was an “academic experience”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The proposal for a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) announced by universities and science minister Jo Johnson in early July that would recognise “excellent teaching” and “make good teaching better…Dennis Hayes, Professor of Education, University of DerbyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/442562015-07-06T13:34:35Z2015-07-06T13:34:35ZRanking universities on excellent teaching will be better for everyone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87337/original/image-20150703-20475-1jq0c76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Searching out the best teaching. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edbrambley/4260498576/sizes/l">edbrambley/www.flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The quality of teaching at universities has emerged as one of the key priorities for the new Conservative majority government. In a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/teaching-at-the-heart-of-the-system">recent speech</a> to Universities UK, Jo Johnson the new universities minister, said he wanted to see universities in England enhance teaching quality, bear down on grade inflation and achieve parity of esteem between teaching and research. </p>
<p>Driven by a desire to give student consumers better information about where to study based on the excellence of a university’s teaching, his plan is to introduce a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-the-next-government-hold-for-higher-education-40588">long-mooted</a> Teaching Excellence Framework. He said that this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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. </p>
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<p>One problem that might hinder Johnson’s chances of succeeding is that, while each of the particular aspirations on his wish list are credible, together they appear somewhat contradictory. For example, take <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25811702">grade inflation</a> – above-trend increases in the numbers of firsts and 2:1s granted by universities in recent years. How much this reflects higher student achievement is unclear. But the elevation of the “student-as-consumer” in the era of £9,000 per year fees and the competitive marketisation of the higher education sector, which Johnson advocates, may bear some responsibility for unwarranted classification hikes.</p>
<p>Universities regard student grade classifications as a metric around which they cannot fall short – or else their reputations or student recruitment suffers. People paying high fees expect to do well and university rankings include this dimension in their calculations.</p>
<p>The US faces similar issues, in part as a result of empowered, fee-paying, student consumers demanding value-for-money as part of an entitlement to a good student experience. Arguably, increased emphasis on the “student experience” – or consumer delight – can take focus away from the rigour traditionally associated with simply teaching the curriculum. </p>
<p>Universities’ preoccupations with ensuring that the high grades they award are “in alignment” with those of similar universities are likely to be reinforced by both the minister’s comments and also recent proposals by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) for <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/reg/review/">quality assurance</a>. Both want to shift the focus of debates around quality away from university evaluation onto student outputs – their grades and wages once they leave graduate. </p>
<p>There is less concern with “regulating regulation” – auditing universities’ own procedures by an external bureaucratic entity such as the Quality Assurance Agency – than there is on monitoring standards of student attainment around knowledge and skills. </p>
<p>However, judging institutions in these ways, including those struggling to attract good students, is actually a real incentive for grade inflation – at least in subjects, such as the arts and social sciences, where grades are awarded more as a result of subjective, rather than metric processes.</p>
<h2>Don’t put all hope in external examiners</h2>
<p>It’s unclear whether the government can regulate these potential market perversities to sustain the reputation of the English higher education system. Johnson (like HEFCE) shows a rather touching faith in a modernised, external examination system for universities as a key instrument to guarantee this. External examiners are set to become professionalised and trained guardians of standards at higher education institutions, helping to damp down any tendencies towards grade inflation. </p>
<p>Yet the notion of a highly trained cadre of external examiners is an oxymoron. External examining is done mostly reluctantly (except for those starting out on their careers as academics), is poorly paid, and undertaken as a professional responsibility mostly with a deep sigh. It only operates at all because the whole rickety affair is so fragmented and loosely disciplined. Tell external examiners that they have to become trained, registered and subject to bureaucratic oversight, and nobody will do it.</p>
<p>One alternative option could be to set up a central examining system so that all papers are assessed at one point by a trained group of examiners – as is done for school exams. This would overcome the somewhat isolated role of the current wandering external examiner and would provide more rigorous comparability. </p>
<p>But universities would hate this and object violently. It would be seen as an assault on their autonomy. Probably it would be better, if a key aim is to keep a handle on grade inflation, to set up a national sampling process. This could entail selections of university exam papers receiving some form of scrutiny outside the university itself by panels of experts – rather like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/qanda-what-is-the-ref-and-how-is-the-quality-of-university-research-measured-35529">Research Excellence Framework</a> for research.</p>
<h2>Which incentives will work?</h2>
<p>The question is then how best can ministers create incentives for universities to drive up teaching quality? The first step is to better understand how it can be improved. Responsibility for improving teaching needs to be owned and taken forward by departmental and course teams. External agencies and particularly institutional managers need to ensure that local teams are working collectively to raise standards. Here the <a href="http://www.thestudentsurvey.com/">National Student Survey</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/tick-box-surveys-arent-the-only-way-to-measure-student-satisfaction-28780">other feedback instruments</a> are very important by helping to drive these local processes competitively.</p>
<p>Devices that shame universities for bad teaching may be as effective as extra funding that rewards those where teaching is judged to be outstanding. Public rankings of universities based on their teaching quality performance, judged by student attainments, would be an energising force. It would help, too, if there were funding benefits for teams that demonstrate key “learning gains” by their students, measured by comparing the progress students make between starting and concluding a course. </p>
<p>Above all, good teaching quality is encouraged if institutions are transparent about it and discuss it openly. This is far easier with online and digital learning. Here, the fingerprints of teaching and learning quality are increasingly recordable and clear for all to see as <a href="https://theconversation.com/snooping-professor-or-friendly-don-the-ethics-of-university-learning-analytics-23636">students are tracked</a> throughout the learning process. Real-time intervention (including by insisting that assessment marking and feedback are undertaken online by all academic staff) is traceable and helps address persisting student complaints about the long waits to get their results.</p>
<p>If ministers and HEFCE could create incentives for innovation and the spread of good practice in digital learning through competitive funding awards, this would be an important contribution to raised standards. The key is making teaching more transparent, recordable and therefore accountable. </p>
<p>Only in this way will teaching in England’s universities attain “market-like” characteristics similar to the way research is currently funded. We need to reward the best practitioners by allowing them to “cash in” on their teaching expertise by moving to better-rewarded positions in other institutions. Marketisation needs to spread to teaching careers in just the way it has done for researchers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger King is affiliated with the Higher Education Commission and was co-chair of its inquiry 'Regulating the new landscape of higher education. He is also chair of the board of governors at UK College of Business and Computing (UKCBC), an alternative provider. </span></em></p>The higher education minister Jo Johnson has announced plans for a new Teaching Excellence Framework.Roger King, Visiting Professor, School of Management, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.