Universities that have appealed their ratings in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) should have their cases dealt with “speedily” by the English regulator in order to maintain the value and integrity of the exercise, experts have said.
The Office for Students (OfS) has faced a raft of challenges to TEF ratings awarded to universities, with a fifth still “pending” when results were published on 28 September.
It is understood that it might take two to three months to resolve the appeals and settle the final ratings, which will then be valid for the next four years.
“Clearly a system that has so many appeals against it suggests the people involved are concerned about the legitimacy of the judgements,” said Paul Ashwin, professor of higher education at Lancaster University. “If the system was seen as working, you’d expect far fewer appeals.”
