Teaching excellence framework (TEF)

Shift from quality enhancement to compliance needed to tackle issues with franchising, say supporters, but others doubt new regime will lead to material changes for students

Providers awarded ‘requires improvement’ rating to have cohorts reduced by 10 per cent a year as new OfS chief executives get tough on poor-quality provision

Refreshed system intended to address the ‘small’ proportion of ‘bad courses’ the Office for Students believes are ‘tarnishing the reputation’ of the HE sector

Regulator scraps overall ratings after consultation on revamped exercise but commits to plans to limit growth at bronze providers

Report flags how seven institutions that have achieved a coveted gold rating have black awarding gaps exceeding 25 percentage points

The Teaching Excellence Framework’s reliance on existing outcomes and satisfaction data, as proxies for teaching quality, has always invited criticism. But with the OfS now proposing to use it to assess compliance with regulatory conditions, the TEF might have finally found its niche. Juliette Rowsell reports

Warnings revised TEF rules could damage universities with a widening participation agenda and fail to weed out bad actors

Revamped version of quality benchmark scheme will force more higher education providers to participate and punish those with lower ratings

Regulator exploring how to integrate exercise into wider quality assessments

Rather than designating England’s universities gold, silver or bronze the TEF should promote deeper understanding of teaching quality, says Steve Briggs 

Only 42 per cent of students have seen Teaching Excellence Framework ratings for universities they were interested in

Online distance learning specialist blames old data as OfS identifies ‘absence of excellence’

Five more institutions achieve gold awards after OfS resolves challenges to original ratings

Institutions without ratings at a disadvantage during crucial recruitment period as many wrongly assume appeals are due to their being designated ‘requires improvement’

Stringing out the numerous challenges could risk influence of Teaching Excellence Framework declining across the sector, experts fear

Large swathes of scores missing as OfS publishes first results of newly revamped exercise

As deadline for submissions approaches, OfS outlines how revamped exercise will benefit sector

Label would apply to providers failing to get a rating and in England would limit the fees they can charge, according to consultation

Regulator extends existing awards, with results of reformed evaluation not due to be published until 2023

Experts fear submissions in 2021 won’t be able to appropriately account for wide range of disruptions to student experience caused by pandemic