Our University has been awarded silver status in the Government’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)

This award defines Warwick as a university that “consistently exceeds rigorous national quality requirements for UK higher education” and achieves “excellent outcomes for its students…with an institutional culture that facilitates, recognises and rewards excellent teaching”.

This result confirms the high quality of teaching at Warwick that has been demonstrated consistently through our history: we have been ranked within the top 10 of UK universities since league tables began - most recently we were ranked 8th in the UK by the Guardian, and 57th in the QS World Rankings. We are ranked the most targeted University by the UK’s top 100 graduate employers.

As well as over 120 awards for the quality of teaching at Warwick through the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATE), 16 Warwick staff have been awarded Fellowships under the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) - including three awards in 2016 – making Warwick the only university to have achieved this result in that year.

Commenting on the result, Stuart Croft said “A Warwick education is at the forefront of excellence in national and international education agendas and our students are highly talented. I’m committed to continuing to work in partnership with our students and staff to maintain and further enhance the quality and distinctiveness of education at Warwick”.

The result will be used alongside the data we have from other rankings, the Institutional Teaching and Learning Review (ITLR) and student feedback to continue to drive further enhancements to the teaching and learning experience at Warwick under the overarching education strategy. This will provide direction and coordination across key institutional priorities in internationalisation, interdisciplinarity, undergraduate research and disciplinary excellence.

View Warwick's Statement of Findings for TEF 2017

Find out more

Hear from Gwen van der Velden, Academic Director of the Warwick International Higher Education Academy as she explains what makes the education experience at Warwick special and reflects on the Teaching Excellence Framework.

Teaching and Learning at Warwick

Our Institutional Teaching and Learning Review	Our purpose-built teaching and learning building, The Oculus
Welcome to our two new recently appointed Academic Directors	Study space news from the SU Education sabbatical officer, Hope Worsdale

TEF: background

The TEF is a scheme between the Government and HEFCE to encourage excellent teaching in universities and colleges. It is intended to help students choose where to study, by providing clear information about teaching provision and student outcomes. At the moment, the TEF only applies to England and only to undergraduate degrees.

There are three assessment criteria:

1. Teaching Quality
2. Learning Environment
3. Student Outcomes and Learning Gain

These are assessed through 6 core metrics and a 15 page Provider Submission. The metrics are based on scores from:

• Student satisfaction using the teaching on course, assessment and feedback and academic support scales from the National Student Survey
• Retention using HESA UK Performance Indicators
• Proportion in employment or further study using 6 month DLHE

The TEF will allow universities and colleges to increase their tuition fees, in line with inflation, if they have passed its baseline quality standard. For 2017, this means maximum fees will be £9,250 a year.

There has been significant debate about the TEF within the higher education sector since it was proposed. At Warwick, our Vice-Chancellor, Stuart Croft, published an open letter on his concerns about the metrics being used, and the potential impact on our ability to continue to welcome international students. Our Students’ Union has also voiced strong concerns.

As TEF is voluntary, some institutions have chosen not to participate. TEF can more accurately be described as a tool to identify the institutions performing well against expectations for their particular student intake and does not explain high quality teaching, student satisfaction or teaching styles and student experience like traditional league tables do. It is up to the separate newspapers who run existing league tables to decide if they want to use TEF rankings in their own calculations.

The Government has announced an independent review of the TEF’s use of statistics before 2020.

For more information on the TEF, visit hefce.ac.uk/lt/tef.