EASY EXPERT
Cathy Hyde Managing Client Partner, WhiteLabel
EASY EXPERT
The Teaching Excellent Framework (TEF): what does it mean for university targeting strategies?
You will no doubt have read a lot in the press recently about the results of the Teaching Excellence Framework. TEF was introduced by the Government in 2016 as a trial year and the results were published in June 2017. This new scheme aims to recognise excellence in undergraduate teaching, learning environment and student outcomes. While the scheme was introduced as a voluntary exercise, the government indicated that for those institutions receiving an award, they would be able to increase tuition fees in line with inflation - a tasty carrot for the vast majority.
Initially each institution was given a confidential result, based purely on metrics taken from other data that is already collected such as the National Student Survey (NSS) and Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE). Each institution could then provide an evidence based submission with the aim of influencing the final, published award.
Institutions that took part have received a Gold, Silver or Bronze TEF award. Considering the TEF has been introduced to provide prospective students with help in choosing where they may want to study, this could be
viewed in its simplest form as another league table. I was Head of Careers & Employability at the University of Bedfordshire when the TEF was introduced and was immediately concerned that the Bronze, Silver and Gold approach could be used as an easy, unsophisticated tool by some when developing university targeting strategies and deciding where to spend budgets.
What does the outcome mean? Gold awards were given to 60 institutions, 115 received Silver, Bronze went to 55 and 65 received provisional awards. Some of the results could be considered surprising: some Russell Group institutions have been awarded Bronze while other institutions more commonly seen at the lower end of traditional league tables have been awarded Silver and Gold. So, are all ‘Gold’ universities developing the best quality graduates and all ‘Bronze’ universities doing badly in this area? Should you change your university targeting strategy?
Relying purely on the TEF results would be way too simplistic an approach. But in terms of social mobility and supporting organisations to recruit from as wide a range of universities as possible, the TEF awards
clearly show that you cannot rely purely on league table results to understand how well students at university will perform once in a graduate level role.
What’s coming next?
The HE sector has mixed views on the methodology of TEF and it remains a controversial scheme. At the moment TEF is here to stay, institution awards can change and a pilot of TEF assessments at subject level is about to begin.
My advice is that you should be familiar with the results and the methodology used, and consider TEF as part of a mix of resources to determine where to target budgets and resource. Where TEF could be very useful is in encouraging stakeholders to widen the pool of universities that they target. These new awards could work as a much-needed piece of evidence to show that traditional league tables aren’t the be all and end all and perhaps previously ignored universities may now start to get noticed in graduate recruitment marketing plans.
Cathy Hyde Client Partner, WhiteLabel
Comply or Die: What GDPR means for student recruitment
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most important change in data privacy regulation for 20 years. It comes into force on 25 May 2018 and will affect every organisation that recruits students. With fines of up to £20 million or 4% of global annual turnover for failure to comply, GDPR is a very significant legislative change that you need to know about and plan for now.
40 TheStudentEmployer
ise.org.uk
Like previous data protection legislation GDPR applies to all ‘personal data’. However, the GDPR definition is broader. Any data that can be used to identify a candidate is considered personal data. This means things such as genetic, mental, cultural, economic, or social information, even IP addresses. There are big implications too if you use any form of automation (and who doesn’t?) in recruitment. Candidates will have the right to not be subject to a decision that is based on automated processes unless you have their explicit consent.
There’s a lot to take in and it’s important you are prepared for GDPR because the penalties associated with breaking the new regulations are so severe. To find out more about GDPR, you can request the slide deck from the recent ISE Selection & Assessment Forum by emailing
hello@weareamberjack.com. Noncompliance is not an option.
Cassie Sissons, Managing Director, Resourcing Services at Amberjack
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