University to participate in TEF subject-level pilot
Wednesday, 21 November 2018
The Office for Students (OfS) has recently confirmed that we have been accepted to participate in the national subject-level pilot for the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) in 2018/19, alongside 49 other providers.
TEF was introduced by the government in England in 2015/16 and is run by the OfS. It assesses teaching at universities and colleges, as well as how institutions ensure excellent outcomes for their students. Each institution is awarded a gold, silver or bronze rating for excellence, as judged by an independent panel of students, academics and other experts. The University of Reading was awarded a TEF Silver in 2017.
The next planned phase for the OfS is to introduce ratings at subject level. A pilot is being launched this year to refine the potential metrics and identify the most effective way of producing these ratings. This is in advance of the subject level exercise becoming mandatory for all institutions from 2020/21.
Participating in the pilot this year provides a valuable opportunity for us to reflect on, and gather impact evidence of, our teaching and learning excellence and enhancement across the institution and to identify where we might improve. We will be able to test our data, metrics and narrative statements with the external subject-level panels and it will help us to be better prepared for the mandatory exercise in 2020.
The results of the pilot will not be shared with anyone other than ourselves. This is unlike those for the future mandatory exercise which will be published widely and will become an important element of our recruitment, teaching practice and enhancement activities.
Professor Gavin Brooks, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, will be working closely with the Teaching & Learning Deans and the School Directors of Teaching & Learning to prepare our submission for the deadline on 25 February 2019. The work will be supported by colleagues in professional Functions, in particular, the Planning & Strategy Office and CQSD.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all colleagues for your ongoing commitment to our teaching and learning environment. We look forward to working together to ensure our excellence in this area is well reflected in our pilot submission.