On 16 May, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) published, Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, a white paper on Higher Education. The white paper contains plans for the development of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).
Universities Scotland is engaging constructively in the development of the TEF. A working group has been established to look at the way forward in Scotland, and Universities Scotland is formulating a response to the technical consultation which BIS has launched alongside the White Paper. We are also working with UUK to ensure its response reflects the views of Scottish members too.
Scotland’s higher education sector is committed to an enhancement-led approach to quality. Throughout April and May Universities Scotland has been working with members to articulate a shared set of principles that underpin Scotland’s distinctive approach to teaching excellence. They are:
- collaboration and collegiality
- purposeful striving to continuously improve teaching
- student partnership
- supporting learning excellence
- recognition of the interdependence of research and teaching links
- learning from international experience
- focus on equalities
- preserving the diversity of the sector
As the TEF develops Universities Scotland will work with the Scottish and UK Governments and MPs to highlight the distinctive strengths of the Scottish approach to quality, share our wealth of experience and expertise in quality enhancement and work to secure a ‘different but equivalent’ route to accreditation at all levels for Scottish institutions.
Read Universities Scotland’s position on Teaching Excellence Framework here