The higher education White Paper has been published: so how has Jo Johnson dealt with five of the big concerns raised about his policy plans in recent months? Concern: That the metrics powering the teaching excellence framework (TEF) are fundamentally flawed, and they do not, in fact, measure teaching quality. Has it been resolved? The three core metrics are to remain the same: student satisfaction scores (National Student Survey), graduate outcome data (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education), and continuation rates. Jo Johnson has also confirmed that an element of human intervention – some sort of peer review – will help to soften the edges of this metrics approach, and indicated that the technical consultation will ask for sector input into how the disciplinary assessment in year four of the TEF will work, while Hefce has been asked to look at additional metrics that might be considered. However, as things stand it appears that the the fundamental focus of TEF is largely as set out previously (and as critiqued by the BIS Committee inquiry).

May 16, 2016 ・ From Times Higher Education