TEF should ‘penalise universities for failing on racial equity’

Several universities in England which have scored a top rating in a national teaching assessment have large gaps in degree outcomes for black students and low representation of black academics, according to a report that says equity goals should form a larger part of quality metrics.

The report by Katharine Hubbard, the director of learning enhancement and academic practice at Buckinghamshire New University, analyses results from the 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), a national scheme run by the Office for Students (OfS) that assesses the quality of teaching in English universities.

She found that seven institutions that had a gold rating, the highest in the system, had black awarding gaps exceeding 25 percentage points. This means that black students at these institutions were far less likely than white students to earn a first- or upper-second-class degree, the report, published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) points out. 

It also found that more than half of gold- and silver-rated universities recruited significantly fewer black staff than expected based on the UK working-age population. In some cases, students would have completed their degrees without ever encountering a black professor or senior academic staff member.

“Can an institution really be considered gold standard when it has a black awarding gap of over 25 percentage points and students never encounter a black academic?” Hubbard said.

“If racial inequity is a structural issue, we can only tackle it through changing structures. TEF is the most visible badge of quality in the English higher education sector – it’s time to make racial equity a more substantive part of the metrics that drive institutional behaviours and action.”

The report argues that racial equity is not considered a “major strategic priority for institutions”, allowing them to “get away with poor performance” on equity while maintaining strong reputational metrics. Progress towards racial equity has been “notoriously slow”, it adds, saying that structural changes are needed to accelerate improvements.

To address disparities, Hubbard suggests a flag-based system to show which universities have significant racial inequities. It would look at eight student outcomes and four measures of staff representation. If a university has a large gap in any of these areas, it would receive a flag and this would impact its TEF rating. 

“If all gold and silver institutions with three or more racial inequity flags were downgraded, around one-in-five providers would see their TEF rating change as a result of racial inequity or under-representation,” it says in the report. 

Nick Hillman, the director of Hepi, said universities had made progress when it came to diversifying their student population, but disparities remained. “[While] some institutions have done more than others, there continues to be a substantial black degree-awarding gap and the number of black professors continues to be very low at many places and across the sector as a whole,” he said. 

“I doubt everyone will agree with all the recommendations, but our hope is that the paper contributes to a useful debate.”

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com