The recent release of the sector NSS results and the Teaching Excellence Framework have amplified conversations within and across universities about excellence in academic delivery.
In particular, we have focused on the key measures which underpin these articulation of our relative performance. Universities pore over and analyse the often overwhelming wealth of data on both individual learners and module/course level metrics.
The context of a challenging narrative of low value degrees, of too many young people going to university (which is in part therefore an explanation of current skills’ gaps), cross-winds of discourse that the applied public sector professions should not require degree-level qualifications, and a return to pre-pandemic proportions of eighteen year olds accessing higher education, means that competition for students is fierce.
As well as the recruitment income challenge, there is the broader financial and inflationary pressure currently experienced by the sector – according to latest reporting the real value of the student fee has now dipped below £6,000 – at a time when universities have to do more to support retention, continuation and the success of their students.
