As a panel member of the Teaching Excellence Framework exercise, I’ve spent a good part of the past year taking stock of the state of learning and teaching in England’s higher education providers.
One thing I’ve taken away from the exercise is that providers that have been successful in the TEF have a great story to tell about how they understand student experience, student outcomes, and educational gains and as a result, really have a grip on how well they know, work with, and engage their students.
I’ve lost count of the number of papers and presentations I’ve seen over the years about student engagement. It’s hardly the pedagogical equivalent of rocket science to point out that if a student is motivated, interested, and immersed in learning activities, they are much more likely to flourish, achieve, and progress. Yet to some extent – or in some parts of the sector – we have taken the view that engagement is primarily the student’s responsibility rather than building learning environments that are designed to hook students in and keep them consistently engaged over an extended period.
Self-engaging learners, certainly those at the start of their learning journeys, don’t need universities. The value that university education offers is the encouragement and support of university staff and the structures and systems that in turn support them – all of which enable students to engage deeply with knowledge and develop skills and ideally help to keep them mentally well. So, as much as the quality regime is grounded in metrics for student outcomes, I think that the TEF process indicates that the most productive response to that on the part of providers is to renew a focus on learning processes – the mechanisms by which students are enabled and encouraged to engage – and reflect these in learning design.
