Elite universities improve teaching scores after review

Some of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious universities have improved their scores for teaching standards after they requested to be judged again in official rankings, writes Eleanor Busby for the Independent.

Four Russell Group institutions – the most selective in the UK – have seen a boost to their ratings in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) after they resubmitted applications after more than half of the group of universities (13 out of 21) were not given a gold rating last year. Three were given a bronze award, which is the lowest rating for teaching. The TEF ratings were awarded for the first time last summer and are valid for three years. But universities and colleges can choose to reapply to the process each year.

Amatey Doku, National Union of Students (NUS) vice president for higher education, said: “NUS maintains significant concerns that this exercise does not recognise excellent teaching, rather excellent performance on a series of metrics – including things such as how much an institution’s graduates earn, which is unconnected to their experiences in the classroom. Truly excellent teaching and the transformational effect of education cannot be captured in blunt measurements.”
Full report on the Independent site