My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the council of two universities. Like others, I am in something of a quandary on this part of the Bill; I have several concerns about the TEF, but I support enthusiastically any attempt to improve the status and excellence of teaching in universities. As chief executive of Universities UK, way back in the 1990s, I was instrumental in helping to develop the Quality Assurance Agency, which has gone on to do such a great job of encouraging institutions to take teaching much more seriously. It has developed the extensive framework for assurance and quality enhancement that characterises the HE sector today and which is admired around the world.
Despite the fact that there is an enormous amount of good teaching in universities, producing excellent learning outcomes, it has long been a dilemma that—at least in certain institutions—research and not teaching has become the means of individual advancement and the basis for institutional reputation, reinforced by league tables. That is not to say that researchers do not make good teachers—many do—but it is research that garners the accolades. Not enough weight is given to the support of students through good teaching, although I am heartened to learn that there has been much more emphasis recently on showing students how research and scholarship links with undergraduate learning.
The HE system is changing rapidly. It is already a diverse system and is becoming ever more diverse as new providers enter the sector. I was astonished to learn in a recent report that, on one count, there are 700 alternative providers; I gather that the more reliable figure is 400, but that is still more than double the number of established universities and clearly offers students a great deal more choice than was available, say, five or 10 years ago. Inevitably, though, there is a greater risk of poor-quality provision if these providers are not subject to the same extensive quality assurance process or regulatory regime as existing providers. So it is wise, in this new and changing environment, to review the way in which the quality assurance system deals with this much more complex world. Talking to people in the sector, and from what I read, I believe that the teaching excellence framework—the TEF—has the potential to provide more encouragement and support for teaching, to produce useful information for students, and, hopefully, to raise the status of teaching in all HE providers. But some of its provisions worry me—those worries have been reflected by other noble Lords.
We have been given a very useful briefing from the department on this part of the Bill and I thank the civil servants, some of whom I recognise in the Box, for the careful, helpful and comprehensive way that they have guided us through this Bill before each of our sessions. However, the recent briefing highlighted some of my concerns. The range of metrics described in the briefing, while voluminous, do not seem related to good teaching. They seemed much broader than a framework for teaching excellence would suggest. The metrics on employability and equality of opportunity—while perfectly
good—suggest, for example, that the TEF is really about the student experience, or indeed about any provision that is not evaluated by the research excellence framework—the REF.
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Like others, I was reassured that Professor Chris Husbands will be the chair of the TEF, since his background at the Institute of Education certainly inspires my confidence. It is good that he is coming to brief us next week, as that will be a real help. However, I would appreciate it if the Minister could reassure the House that the metrics, and indeed the further information that will be added in the provider submission, have been thoroughly assessed by teachers and that there is general and genuine buy-in, rather than just a sense of having to go along with this because something else is at stake.
Another concern for me, like for so many others around the House, is the scoring method and the use of the Olympics terminology. Using gold, silver and bronze as a means of differentiating between institutions seems to me to be absolutely meaningless and certainly not helpful. What is a student or parent supposed to read into them? How do they identify the nuances of what is good or what is in need of improvement across an HEI? The quality assurance process is not a race with only one winner. The first outcome judgments proposed were “excellent” and “outstanding”, but these were rejected because they were difficult to distinguish. Is it clear what the difference is between gold and silver? It seems obvious that it could well be best and second best. How quickly will second best come to mean mediocre? I understand that the expected distribution will be 20% bronze, 50% to 60% silver, and 20% to 30% gold—so it is already anticipated that well over half of provision will not be regarded as excellent anyway.
For a sector with an excellent reputation across what the late principal of Green College, Oxford, Sir David Watson, characterised as, “a controlled reputational range”, and for a sector that attracts and satisfies thousands of international students each year and is so highly regarded internationally, this seems like shooting ourselves in the foot. I am really concerned that categorising institutions in this simplistic way of bronze, silver and gold will have our competitors rubbing their hands in glee as these judgments are translated into league tables and used to downgrade our place in the marketplace. In a post-Brexit world, anything that undermines our core asset of quality and reputation should be avoided.
It therefore will not be any surprise to your Lordships that my doubts about the process mean that I am seriously concerned that these judgments are being linked to fee increases—very modest fee increases, I must say. I am delighted that the Government have recognised the danger of linking them to the recruitment of international students and do not intend to pursue that, but I urge the Government to reconsider linking these, as yet untested, judgments to the ability of universities to increase fees. It makes no sense at all from a student’s perspective. Students are already told that a fee of £9,000 gives them access to “high-quality education”. Are they to assume that this is only really
true in 20% to 30% of institutions? And what about the impact on access, as the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, mentioned? A large number of students, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, need or choose to study at their local university. They do not have a choice of moving elsewhere. Are they to be told that, because of their circumstances, they must possibly reconcile themselves to attending an inferior institution? Surely we should be focusing on encouraging excellence in teaching in every part of every institution, while certainly encouraging excellence and acknowledging the best, so that students can be reassured that, whatever they study, they can indeed expect a high-quality education.
I make one final point, which links to the point made by my noble friend Lady Lister. I am really surprised that there is no mention of a requirement for qualified teacher status. Although a substantial proportion of university teachers have obtained such a qualification, many students and parents are surprised to find that it is not compulsory to train to teach at higher education level. Given the huge changes that are taking place in relation to digitisation in particular—which will affect life chances, jobs and many aspects of graduate work—the training and retraining of teachers would seem to be a fundamental element of continuous improvement of the quality of teaching.
I do not want to labour these points. I am very conscious of the advice of the chief executive of the QAA that universities should focus on putting the metrics into context, and,
“highlight and exemplify excellent practice across the institution”,
to help the assessors and panel members,
“see beyond the metrics and make … rounded judgements”.
I am sure that is wise.
This is TEF’s second year yet there remain serious doubts about the metrics and the grading, as well as fears about the reputational risk of getting this wrong and the financial consequences if the system deters students rather than highlighting areas for further improvement. There must be a more imaginative and less risky way of achieving the Government’s admirable objective of recognising the highest teaching quality, so would it not be equally wise for the Government to establish confidence in the system, evaluate it and see whether it is achieving its objective before deciding that reputations established with such commitment, effort and undoubted excellence over the last 10, 20, 30 years can be destroyed by a broad-brush, rather simplistic judgment?