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Top UK Universities Perform Poorly in Controversial New Ranking
By Craig OCallaghan
Updated June 22, 2017 Updated June 22, 2017As if there weren’t enough university rankings out there already, the UK government has introduced another one and several top UK universities have performed poorly.
LSE, Southampton and Liverpool were handed the lowest possible ranking of bronze in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), despite all being members of the elite Russell Group of universities. By contrast, many universities which rarely feature near the top of rankings were awarded gold, including Bangor, Buckingham, Coventry and Portsmouth.
TEF has been introduced by the Conservative government as a way of assessing the quality of teaching at different universities. In the future, the plan is that a university’s TEF rating will determine how much they can charge students in tuition fees. Only universities rated gold and silver will be allowed to increase fees in line with inflation.
So, how is TEF calculated then?
Universities included in the Teaching Excellence Framework were assessed by an independent panel of academics, students and employers. Mainly, this assessment is based upon the following data:
Universities were also required to submit a written report which argued how they met the various criteria. This could be used to highlight mitigating factors or other information not captured not by the collected data mentioned above.
Which universities have done well?
As mentioned above, there are some surprising universities which have been awarded gold, alongside the familiar heavyweights like Oxford and Cambridge. Here’s a complete breakdown of the universities rated gold in this year’s Teaching Excellence Framework, with their position in the QS World University Rankings® 2018 alongside it for comparison, along with selected universities ranked silver and bronze.
University
QS World University Rankings® 2018
Arts University Bournemouth
N/A
Aston University
=373rd
Bangor University
441-450
University of Bath
160th
University of Birmingham
=84th
Bishop Grosseteste University
N/A
University of Buckingham
N/A
University of Cambridge
5th
Conservatoire for Dance and Drama
N/A
Coventry University
551-600
De Montfort University
N/A
University of Derby
N/A
University of Dundee
=267th
Edge Hill University
N/A
University of Essex
=352nd
University of Exeter
=158th
Falmouth University
N/A
Harper Adams University
N/A
University of Huddersfield
751-800
Imperial College London
8th
Keele University
601-650
University of Kent
=373rd
Lancaster University
=135th
University of Law
N/A
University of Leeds
101st
University of Lincoln
N/A
Liverpool Hope University
N/A
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts
N/A
Loughborough University
234th
Newcastle University
=161st
University of Northampton
N/A
Norwich University of the Arts
N/A
University of Nottingham
=84th
Nottingham Trent University
801-1000
University of Oxford
6th
University of Portsmouth
601-650
Robert Gordon University
801-1000
Rose Bruford College
N/A
Royal Academy of Music
N/A
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London
N/A
Royal College of Music
N/A
Royal Northern College of Music
N/A
Royal Veterinary College
N/A
University of St Andrews
92nd
University of Surrey
=272nd
N/A indicates the university is not included in the QS ranking.
Silver: Universities rated silver include King’s College London, University of Bristol, University of York, University of Manchester, and University of Warwick.
Bronze: Universities rated bronze include LSE, University of Southampton, University of Liverpool, and Goldsmiths.
Wow, that list of gold universities is really different to the QS ranking!
21 of the 46 universities rated gold by the Teaching Excellence Framework don’t feature at all in the QS university rankings. So, who should you believe? This wild disparity largely comes from the different criteria being used to assess universities. While TEF has little interest in a university’s research impact, one of the six criteria used by QS is the number of research citations produced per faculty member at each university. QS also places greater emphasis on the reputation a university has among academics and employers, while TEF is more concerned with feedback from students. Read more about the QS ranking methodology here.
Surely, it’s a good thing to base ratings for universities off what current students think of their teaching?
Well, here’s where the problems with TEF actually start to emerge. While using the opinions of current students seems like a sound way to assess whether teaching quality is high or low, it doesn’t exactly work in practice as it risks rewarding universities and courses where the teaching is less demanding or stressful. There’s also the fact that each student has very little to compare their university experience to – making it difficult for them to objectively tell how good their tutors are.
However, the biggest issue TEF has faced is that many students haven’t welcomed the idea that their positive feedback could give their university permission to increase tuition fees in the future. As a result, many universities had students boycotting the National Student Survey in protest. It’s not clear how the government plans to solve this problem in the future, but it’s likely to cause some unusual results until they do.
So, should I pay any attention to TEF when choosing a university?
The National Union of Students, which organized the boycott of the National Student Survey, have dismissed the TEF as “another meaningless university ranking system which no one asked for” but that doesn’t mean it can’t be useful when choosing a university.
Our recommendation for now would be to read more into a university being rated gold than a traditionally strong university being rated bronze. While the former suggests a university not only provides good-quality teaching but also produces satisfied students, the latter bronze ratings could be impacted by a variety of factors. Even one of the people behind the TEF has said prospective students should only use it in combination with other rankings and information. Just because a university isn’t rated gold, doesn’t mean it’s not a top UK university.
This article was originally published in June 2017 .
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As Head of Content, Craig is responsible for all articles and guides published across TopUniversities and TopMBA. He has nearly 10 years of experience writing for a student audience and extensive knowledge of universities and study programs around the world.
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