Revised TEF ‘unfairly penalises smaller institutions’

Changes to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) risk creating a “less fair and more punitive system”, English universities fear, with smaller institutions warning that they face being penalised because of over-reliance on data to measure quality.

The Office for Students has announced its latest plans for the wide-ranging quality exercise after a consultation, including a move away from giving universities a single overall rating of gold, silver, bronze or requires improvement, instead scoring institutions on student outcomes and experience only.

Although this move was welcomed by some parts of the sector, MillionPlus, which represents modern universities, warned that it could skew students’ choices.

Rachel Hewitt, the group’s chief executive, said: “MillionPlus supports clearer information for students but the final TEF decisions risk creating a less fair and more punitive system.

“Separate ratings for student experience and outcomes could be useful but dropping the overall rating means universities will be judged on partial data rather than a rounded view of quality.

“At the same time, strong penalties linked to lower ratings remain, risking a shift from quality enhancement to compliance and adding greater financial pressure when budgets are already beyond stretched.

“Overall, the system must better reflect context and avoid penalising the universities working hardest to widen access and increase opportunity.”

The OfS is merging its quality investigations with the TEF, which will now apply to all registered providers and eventually cover both undergraduate and postgraduate study.

Those receiving lower ratings will be subjected to more regular assessment and sanctions including student number controls, as well as being excluded from certain funding schemes such as the Strategic Priorities Grant. The OfS has said that how these measures will work in practice will be subject to further consultation.

University Alliance, which represents professional and technical universities, welcomed this commitment to further consultation, saying the “consequential measures” should not be “imposed in a fixed or automatic way at this stage”.

But others remain concerned. Eve Allcock, executive director of external affairs for the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, said there could be “unintended consequences” to linking the TEF to financial penalties.

The government has also proposed linking TEF ratings to whether universities qualify for future tuition fee rises, Allcock highlighted.

“We would encourage both OfS and government to listen carefully to the sector as consultation continues, to ensure any proposals appropriately balance protecting students from poor-quality provision where there is strong justification, with ensuring penalties don’t hinder a provider's ability to improve its quality across the board,” Allcock said.

Alex Proudfoot, chief executive of Independent Higher Education, told THE that the OfS should develop a “more tailored approach” for measuring quality, “particularly for smaller providers”.

Proudfoot said a decision by the OfS not to award institutions a rating if they lacked sufficient data, for example, if they do not participate in the National Student Survey, risked putting providers on a par with poor performers through no fault of their own.

The OfS has shelved its plan to design a bespoke data collection exercise to fill in the gaps and Proudfoot said this showed the regulator was “still designing things for large institutions” and treated small providers like “an inconvenience, an afterthought”.

“What we’re finding is that the OfS is moving away from that qualitative judgement completely and doubling down on that idea that data is the one true indication of quality within a provider,” he said, calling for “more imaginative ways” to assess institutions.

The OfS was contacted for comment.

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com