Beyond the TEF: building global measures of university teaching

A new assessment framework could help to make teaching achievements as valuable to academic careers as research outputs, says Helen Atkinson.

The controversy surrounding the government’s 2017 Teaching Excellence Framework results, published in June, highlighted once again the issue of a satisfactory process for measuring teaching quality in higher education.

For too long, there has been an imbalance between the emphasis on research reputation and income in university culture, and teaching. That is why the Royal Academy of Engineering has welcomed the principle of the TEF. As the assessment becomes embedded in higher education, it must support new approaches to teaching, driving improvement rather than stifling innovation.