Abstract

The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) aims to recognise and reward excellence in teaching and learning, and help inform prospective students' choices for higher education (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2017). Developed by the Department of Education in England and first trialled in 2016, the TEF claims to be a voluntary scheme that recognises excellent teaching and helps students choose where to study through awarding institutions a gold, silver or bronze status. From 2018-19, universities with a TEF award will be allowed to increase their tuition fees in line with inflation. The TEF has, however, been met with some concern. This debate is critical in shaping how we think of teaching and learning, the ways in which we seek to develop educational practice and, as learning developers, should be something we engage with, as Amanda French points out in Chapter 2 of this book: The TEF, one can argue therefore, should be regarded as much more than a tool for measuring teaching excellence; it has the potential to become the key vehicle for changing the face of the HE sector in Britain (pp.11-12).

Highlights

  • The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) aims to recognise and reward excellence in teaching and learning, and help inform prospective students' choices for higher education (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2017).Developed by the Department of Education in England and first trialled in 2016, the TEF claims to be a voluntary scheme that recognises excellent teaching and helps students choose where to study through awarding institutions a gold, silver or bronze status

  • Teaching Excellence in Higher Education is edited by Dr Amanda French and Dr Matt O’Leary, with contributions from Professor Sue Robson and Associate Professor Phil Wood

  • The authors are in agreement that, whilst TEF may help balance the undue focus on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and research, it falls short of measuring teaching excellence for many reasons and certainly does not help develop teaching

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Summary

Introduction

The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) aims to recognise and reward excellence in teaching and learning, and help inform prospective students' choices for higher education (Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2017). The book entitled ‘Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: Challenges, Changes and the Teaching Excellence Framework’ helps us to understand the TEF by placing it within the social, political, and historical contexts in which it developed. It discusses some of the main factors driving the development of TEF, such as the increased marketisation, Patel. This review will provide a brief background to the authors and describe the structure of the book It will discuss three main questions that the authors address – what are the socio-political drivers behind TEF?

Author background
Book structure
Can TEF measure teaching excellence?
What approaches might be more meaningful in developing teaching excellence?
Author details

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