It’s been a long time, August 2019, since I submitted the Independent Review of TEF to the Secretary of State for Education and a lot of water has flown under Westminster, and other bridges, since that time.
The review identified how important TEF had been in drawing attention to the quality of the learning that our students experience. I am sure that that all providers care about the learning experience of their students, but we heard strong messages that in many institutions there is a tension with other parts of the provider’s mission which affects allocation of resources. In research-intensive universities, where there is competition with research, and in Further Education, where higher education provision is a small part of the overall programme of delivery, TEF was considered to have had significant value in keeping the educational needs of students at the forefront of decision making. So, it’s great that it has not died the death that some thought it might.
Keeping the learning needs of our students in focus is perhaps even more important in the resource constrained climate in which we now operate and where students are under significant financial and emotional pressures after the destructive experiences of the COVID pandemic.
