How can we support higher education providers to strive for excellence?

Today we’ve published a range of evaluation reports that explore the impact of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023.

Since the TEF 2023 exercise ended, we’ve been seeking feedback from those who were involved. This includes student representatives (who were able to submit their own evidence to inform TEF outcomes for the first time), staff in universities and colleges, and TEF panel members.

We asked them to reflect on the TEF’s impact on improving the quality of students’ experiences and outcomes, what worked well about the last exercise, and where there’s room for improvement. We’ve also heard from prospective students on their understanding of the TEF, and how it informs their decisions on where to study.

Through this work, we were keen to understand:

• How far the TEF is supporting providers’ efforts to improve the quality of their courses
• How prospective students are using information from the TEF in their decision making.

So, what were the key themes from these evaluations, and how will we use this learning to inform our future approach?

Providers’ perspectives

IFF Research explored the early impact of the TEF within providers and the effectiveness of our processes, based on interviews and a survey with staff members.

The report found that most providers care about doing well in the TEF and the reputational impacts of their ratings. This increases providers’ focus on student experience and outcomes, often adding weight to work that is already occurring within an institution.

Many providers reported that participation in the TEF has helped them to understand their performance better and identify areas for improvement. Some have also become more evidence-led in their approach to identifying potential improvements and deciding which of these to take forward. The evaluation found that this type of impact varies across providers, and was more noticeable in providers with less well-established, evidence-based quality systems. 

76 per cent of staff at providers who responded to the survey reported taking action to make improvements because of engagement with TEF 2023. Staff members who were interviewed attributed some changes they are making, for example to improve students’ broader educational gains or to assessment approaches, solely or mainly to the TEF. The TEF was cited as one factor of many driving other positive changes.  

The evaluation indicated that different types of providers had differing views of the exercise. The majority of providers felt that the current framework is fit for purpose and the panel’s decisions were credible. However, some felt more could be done to ensure assessments take account of providers’ contexts.

Providers identified the key challenges as timelines and resourcing. While most agree that the TEF has value, the effort and cost involved in participation is considerable.

Students’ perspectives

We were keen to hear student representatives’ perspectives of submitting independent evidence to inform the panel’s assessment.

Our survey found most student representatives were positive about their overall experience of the TEF. They felt it helped them influence positive changes at their provider, and the process had strengthened students’ voices in discussions about learning and teaching. Over half of staff surveyed by IFF Research also agreed that the student submission empowered the student voice within their provider.

Student representatives reported challenges with the time they had to produce submissions, handling existing data and engaging with the student outcomes area of the TEF.

We’ve published a guide, created by former TEF panel members, to help student representatives collect evidence to inform discussions with their provider and future submissions to the OfS. We’re doing this now so student representatives, and those who work with and support them, can start to consider and collect information much earlier for the next assessment cycle.

Applicants’ perspectives

One of TEF’s aims is to inform student choice when deciding where to study, which in turn may incentivise providers to make positive changes. We commissioned Savanta to ask applicants about how they use TEF information in their decision making. Their research found:

• While students care about the areas assessed in the TEF, their use of TEF is limited when making choices.
• TEF ratings were generally used to confirm initial choices rather than being a decisive factor, with Gold and Silver ratings providing some reassurance to students about their chosen providers.
• When focus group participants learnt more about the TEF and what underpinned the ratings, they could see more value in the information.
• There was an appetite for more detail in addition to the ratings – presented as concisely and clearly as possible.

The research concluded that there is scope to increase the use and value of TEF information, through increasing applicants’ awareness and understanding and improving the presentation of information.

How we will use what we have learned

We’re pleased that the TEF is having a positive impact on supporting improvement and also to see the benefits of embedding students’ perspectives in our approach. We’ll ensure that these perspectives continue to inform our work, with opportunities for students to contribute evidence and by including them in our assessment teams.

There’s more we can do to make our assessment outcomes useful to applicants. We’ll continue to explore this as part of a wider review of student information so that students can understand and use this information to make well-informed decisions.

We’ve already been speaking with sector representative groups and staff at providers about our initial thinking to develop an integrated quality system. We’ve heard that we should build on the elements of the TEF that worked well and improve on areas that worked less well for some providers.

As we consider our future approach, we’ll continue to engage with students, student representatives and providers to develop a system that delivers as much value as it can – this will complement and strengthen their current work to enhance student outcomes and their experience. We look forward to taking the evaluation feedback onboard as we work with students, staff and others to design a future approach that’s flexible enough to assess quality and drive continuous improvement for students throughout England’s diverse higher education sector.