My Lords, I have today sent a letter setting out some further detail following Monday’s debates, and attached a briefing note on the teaching excellence framework which I hope noble Lords have found helpful.
I am grateful for the thoughtful comments made in this prolonged debate on the teaching excellence framework, which is in the manifesto commitment. These comments
go to the heart of what we are trying to achieve in incentivising high-quality teaching. I am pleased that there is no disagreement on the importance of high-quality teaching, and the importance of incentivising this. Many Peers have acknowledged this, and Governments from all sides have wanted it for many years. This is an important element of these reforms and this has been a key debate, so I hope that noble Lords will forgive me and that the House will bear with me if I speak at a reasonable length on the points raised.
A number of Peers raised a point on whether the TEF should be tested more and, in effect, go more slowly. This was raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, the noble Lord, Lord Watson, and other noble Lords. In effect, the question related to a pilot scheme. I reassure noble Lords that the TEF has been, and will continue to be, developed iteratively. We have consulted more than once, and year 2, which we are currently in, is a trial year. Working groups, including those in the sector, are under way on the subject-level TEF. That was raised by the noble Viscount, Lord Hanworth, and I will say a little more about that later. Therefore, the sector has recognised this trialling aspect, and Maddalaine Ansell, the chief executive of University Alliance, has said:
“We remain confident that we can work with government to shape the TEF so it works well as it develops”.
The noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, commented on the detailed metrics. She also spoke about iterating and reviewing the metrics, and made some constructive comments. The TEF metrics will continue to evolve. I stress again that, where there is a good case to do so, we will add new metrics to future rounds. I have no doubt that I will also be saying a bit more about this later.
I want to respond quickly to the amendments on the TEF and immigration. This picks up a theme raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Garden, my noble friend Lord Jopling and the noble Baroness, Lady Royall. Following our useful debate last week, and as I set out in my subsequent letter, I confirm again that we have no plans to cap the number of genuine students who can come to the UK to study, nor to limit an institution’s ability to recruit genuine international students based on its TEF rating or any other basis. This applies to all institutions, not just to members of the Russell group.
The noble Lord, Lord Watson, raised the issue of international students, and I move on to the proposal to publish the number of international students. The TEF will be a world-leading assessment of the quality of teaching and student outcomes achieved by higher education providers. Students should have a better idea of what to expect from their studies here—better than anywhere else in the world. However, a dataset that simply links the TEF to international student numbers fails to recognise the much broader international student recruitment market place. I should add that all the relevant information requested by the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, is in the public domain.
Moving on, I remind the Committee that the ability to raise fees according to inflation is not new. As the noble Lord, Lord Watson, said, it has been provided for since 2004. Indeed, as I think he said, the process was established under the then Labour Government
and was routinely applied from 2007 to 2012. I reassure noble Lords that, as the Government set out in the White Paper, our expectation is that the value of fee limits accessible to those participating in the TEF will, at most, be in line with inflation.
As the Liberal Democrats will recall, the coalition Government used the legislation that had been put in place in 2004 by the Labour Government to increase tuition fees above inflation in 2012. We have no such plans to increase the value of fee limits above inflation. Increasing the upper or lower limits by more than inflation would, under the Bill as currently drafted, require regulations subject to the affirmative procedure, which requires the approval of Parliament. In the case of the higher amount, it would also require a special resolution. That is in line with the current legislative approach to raising fee caps.
I now turn to the link between the TEF and fees. Schedule 2 builds on well-established procedures in setting fee caps. Under the schedule, different fee limits will apply depending on whether a provider has an access and participation plan, and what TEF rating they have been awarded. Crucially therefore, this schedule will, for the very first time, link fees to the quality of teaching and thus increase value for students. This will recognise and reward excellence, and will drive up quality in the system. It will mean that only providers who demonstrate high-quality teaching will be able to access tuition fees up to an inflation-linked maximum fee.
The noble Lord, Lord Watson, said that since the increase in fees in 2012 there has been no increase in teaching quality. Therefore, this Government are, for the first time, putting in place real incentives, both reputational and financial, to drive up teaching quality. My noble friend Lord Willetts picked up on this theme. We believe that this is the right way forward. I have already mentioned the iterative aspect of this process.
The principle of linking funding to quality is familiar from the research excellence framework, which was introduced in the mid-1980s, and it has been an effective incentive. The REF has driven up the quality of our research, ensuring that we continue to be world leaders in global science. Tuition fees have been frozen since 2012 at £9,000 per year. This means that the fee has already fallen in value to £8,500 in real terms and, without the changes we propose, it will be worth only £8,000 by the end of this Parliament. Therefore, these changes are important if we want providers to continue to deliver high-quality teaching year after year.
As far back as 2009 the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, said:
“We … need to look in my view for ways of incentivising excellence in academic teaching”.
He went on:
“We have to face up to the challenge of paying for excellence”.
I believe that the measures in Schedule 2 finally deliver that. The schedule allows a direct link between fees and the quality of teaching, with differentiated fees for different TEF ratings—a principle supported by the then BIS Select Committee and the wider sector—along with a clear framework of control for Parliament. This will ensure that well-performing providers are rewarded so that they can continue to invest in excellent teaching.
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The noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, and the noble Viscount, Lord Hanworth, raised concerns about the idea of the TEF being operated at subject level. We agree that the TEF could work well at subject level and are committed to that. We have pilots planned for the end of this year, with the full rollout at subject level in two years’ time. However, this is an evolution from the institutional-level TEF. The rating at institutional level allows us, the sector and assessors to develop the complexity of the scheme over time. I hope that that provides some reassurance.
My noble friend Lord Jopling, the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, and my noble friend Lord Lucas went a little further and said that the NSS is flawed and should not be used. I disagree and can only quote two vice-chancellors—one of the University of Essex and the other of the University of East Anglia—who said:
“As one of the key objectives of the TEF is to provide prospective students with information that will allow them to make informed choices about where to study, it would be perverse to exclude use of the only cross-sector, reliable source of student’s views about the quality of their educational provision”.
However, we recognise the limitations of the NSS and have directed assessors not to overweight the NSS-based metrics. We have set an expectation that these metrics will be triangulated against other metrics and the additional evidence given by the provider. The rating is absolutely not just about the NSS.
My noble friend Lord Jopling quoted the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Winchester, who spoke at Second Reading about ensuring that the TEF does not misinterpret teaching quality. I think that the noble Lord, Lord Lipsey, stated that it needs to measure teaching effectiveness, and of course he is correct. I hope that I can reassure the Committee on that. Excellent teaching can occur in many forms, as I am sure is recognised. There is no one-size-fits-all definition of teaching excellence. However, great-quality teaching, defined broadly, increases the likelihood of good outcomes.
We have chosen to begin the TEF using metrics that are already widely established in the sector. We will continue to review the metrics in use and, where there is a strong case to do so, we will add new metrics to future TEF rounds. The metrics that we have chosen allow differentiation across providers. For example, on retention and student outcomes, many providers are well above or below the current sector-accepted benchmark. So clearly quality teaching makes a difference.
I should now like to address a number of concerns raised at Second Reading and in this group of amendments about the way we intend to communicate the outcomes of the TEF. The TEF is designed to provide clear information to students about where the best provision can be found, as well as clear incentives for providers to strive for teaching excellence. It delivers on our manifesto commitment to recognise universities offering the highest-teaching quality, driving value and transparency for students. To answer a point raised by my noble friend Lord Lucas, the TEF data will be published, not summarised, including the detail.
A fundamental purpose of the TEF is to differentiate excellence above the high-quality baseline in a way that is communicated clearly to students. We consulted
the sector, which made it clear that it wanted neither a ranked league table nor confusing descriptors. The sector was also not keen on the four different levels that we originally proposed. In response to the feedback, we chose to have just three levels, which have been much spoken about today—gold, silver and bronze, using terms suggested by a consultation respondent.
The noble Lord, Lord Kerslake, asked what our assessment is of who will get what in the TEF and the anticipated distribution. In the technical consultation, we indicated a likely distribution where approximately 20% of participating providers would receive the lowest rating, approximately 20% to 30% would receive the highest rating and the remaining 50% to 60% would receive the intermediate rating. However, this distribution is not a quota; that is, the panel will not be expected to force an allocation of providers to categories based on these proportions. Rather, its assessment will be based on evidence, including the provider’s submission. The decision of the TEF panel will be the final determinant of a provider’s rating. The panel will be under no obligation to comply with a quota or guided distribution when determining ratings.
The noble Baroness, Lady Royall, asked who will make the judgment in respect of what the rating should be, which is a fair question. The TEF ratings will be decided by a highly respected and experienced group of TEF assessors, including academics, students and employers. It might interest the Committee to know that more than 1,200 people applied for these roles, which means that this is an extremely experienced group. The group, as was recognised by many Peers, is chaired by the excellent Chris Husbands, whose name was mentioned earlier. The ratings given by the group are made independently of government, which I am sure the Committee will realise.
I have heard concerns that bronze might be considered a negative award, but this is not the case in other areas. For example, for the Athena SWAN awards, recognising the advancement of gender equality, or for Investors in People, a bronze award is clearly seen as a badge of high quality, just as it will be in the TEF. We are not, however, complacent about this, and are working with the British Council and others to ensure that TEF ratings are communicated effectively internationally, emphasising the overall high quality of UK provision. We will have a joint communication plan with them in place by the time the TEF ratings are published. I believe this demonstrates the quality above the high baseline that we expect in the UK.