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The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the NSS - FAQs

24 February 2017

The Teaching Excellence Framework and the National Student Survey explained.

The Teaching Excellence Framework and the NSS

TEF is the Teaching Excellence Framework, introduced by the Government in 2016. The key purpose is to: ‘Give students clear information about where teaching quality is best and where students have achieved the best outcomes’; and to ‘Encourage a stronger focus on the quality of teaching in higher education.’

UCL decided to participate in TEF 2017 in order to have a voice in its development.

Does the TEF mean fee increases?
When £9000 tuition fees were introduced in 2012, no allowance was made for the fees to track inflation.  Rather than rectifying this by allowing all universities to raise tuition fees in line with inflation, the government is aiming to ensure that only universities that can demonstrate high quality teaching, are allowed inflationary rises. This mean a university that achieves a TEF rating in 2017 of gold, silver or bronze can raise their fees in line with the inflation forecast in 2018/19 only.   In subsequent years, only universities with a gold or silver TEF rating will be able to track inflation fully. Those with bronze will be able to increase by 50% of inflation. For more information on the TEF visit the HEFCE website.

What does TEF mean for students?
The TEF will incentivise universities to focus on teaching and provide their students with high quality experiences and outcomes. Each provider with a TEF award will be rated as Gold, Silver or Bronze.

It gives students an opportunity to work with their higher education providers to understand current performance including both highlighting areas of excellent teaching and identifying further improvements.

For future students, the TEF will provide clear information about the quality of teaching and where students have achieved the best outcomes, to inform their choices.

How does it work?
TEF is an annual exercise that will be implemented by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Participating universities make submissions that are a combination of data, for example NSS data, and a written submission.  Providers in England that achieve a TEF award will be able to maintain their fees in line with the caps associated with their TEF rating.

What will be measured in 2017?
In 2016-17, TEF awards will be based on two bundles of information from each university:
i.   an evidenced narrative of teaching and learning activities that either mark them out as distinctive, or exceed the established expectations for teaching quality as used by the QAA
ii. institution-wide data that is already collected i.e. through the NSS, comprising teaching quality, learning environment (including student retention) and student outcomes (Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey).

Why should I fill out the NSS?
The NSS drives change at UCL, with the aim of delivering world-class education to all our students. We use the results for internal improvement processes and ensuring the student voice is heard. This includes the changes that have happened in your department and changes that all students benefit from across UCL, including improvements to your feedback from assessments, longer library opening hours,  longer Careers Service appointments and the earlier release of the exam timetable. Our decisions are strongly influenced by the feedback we receive from you as a student, so if you want your voice heard then the NSS is a crucial channel for making that happen.

Are response rates i.e. the percentage of students who fill out the NSS, linked to tuition fees?
There is no direct link between tuition fees and the number of responses to the NSS. We always aim to ensure that we get a high response rate so that the data is reliable and as representative as possible of our student body. There is a minimum response rate threshold of 50% for the NSS. If the overall response rate for the university is less than 50%, we don’t receive any NSS results.

If I don’t fill out the NSS and we don’t reach the 50% threshold for response rates, does this mean that the TEF won’t go ahead?
No. The government has indicated that, should this happen, they will continue to operate the TEF process using data from 2013-16 instead, meaning that the information provided to prospective students about the quality of education at UCL will not reflect the current picture and the voice of the current cohort will not be heard.

What does TEF 2017 mean for UCL?
We have robust student retention and our results for employment and further study are strong; we also have good evidence of the impact that our commitment to research-based education has on learning. However, at an institutional level, our NSS results relating to assessment and feedback and academic support are some way off the sector average. Therefore, it is not clear that our TEF 2017 rating will reflect the best practice that can be found across the institution and that is recognised annually in the Provost’s Teaching Awards. UCL’s narrative focuses on four major cross-UCL initiatives:

  • Connected Curriculum - embedding research and enquiry in all levels of your learning
  • UCL ChangeMakers – students and staff working in partnership to enhance learning
  • UCL Global Citizenship programme – our flagship programme which supports you to broaden your network and develop key skills
  • UCL Arena – resources, networks and development for UCL staff who teach and support teaching
  • Comprehensive careers and entrepreneurship support - we support our students with a wide range of services, advice and events

Will TEF measure postgraduate as well as undergraduate education?
Postgraduate education isn’t in scope at the moment, but is likely to be included in future years.

What is the time frame?
We made our submission in January 2017. The results of the TEF will be announced in May 2017.

For more information on the TEF visit the HEFCE website.

Updated 23 February 2017