Understanding teaching is more useful than measuring it

A ‘teaching excellence framework’ is likely to be expensive and time-consuming—better to focus on implementing what we already know, says David Carless.

Whether they like it or not, academics are fully paid-up members of the audit society. Performance is monitored and evaluated like never before.

Most recently, that meant the Research Excellence Framework. But what’s next? According to the manifesto of the Conservative government, a “framework to recognise universities offering the highest teaching quality”—and, presumably, penalise those offering the lowest—might be on the cards.