Major London college criticised over ‘excessively high’ grading

A London business school whose lecturers were docked 20 per cent of their pay unless they passed at least 85 per cent of students has been criticised by England’s higher education regulator in a report that highlighted how staff contracts may have contributed to “excessively high grading”.

In a lengthy report published by the Office for Students on 3 October, RTC Education – which, trading as Regent College London, has four campuses in London – is heavily criticised for a number of practices which, according to the regulator, meant “all students did not receive a high quality academic experience”.

Students were on courses that were “often not up to date, not consistently effectively delivered, often lacked educational challenge and coherence, and often did not teach relevant skills”, the report says.

The regulator’s assessment team also upheld concerns, investigated in November 2022, over whether academic resources were sufficient, given the institution’s academic staff-to-student ratio in its business and management school of 1:44 – nearly four times the 1 to 12 ratio claimed in its 2023 Teaching Excellence Framework submission.

The college teaches about 5,600 students at its sites in Holborn, Kingsbury, Fitzrovia and Wembley, with much of its content delivered online. It offers undergraduate business and management programmes delivered on a full-time basis, with graduates receiving degrees from the University of Bolton and Buckinghamshire New University under partnership agreements.

However, it has grown rapidly in recent years with the number of students in its business and enterprise schools increasing four-fold in four years – from 996 students in 2018-19 to 4,055 in 2022-23, the OfS report explains. According to Companies House, its annual turnover that year was £54.5 million and its principal was paid £325,000, including £75,000 in dividends.

But its academic staff count by full-time equivalent (FTE) has failed to keep pace with its student increases, with FTE numbers up only 50 per cent from 57 to 88 in the past four years, the OfS explains.

Furthermore, its report notes the majority of staff (61 per cent) are employed on “module unit contracts” – with 72 module unit teachers employed in 2022-23 compared with 34 permanent staff, plus 13 on fixed-term contracts.

In some cases, new staff were employed just weeks before starting teaching, with one teacher hired only two weeks after submitting a job application.

In addition to raising concerns about how module tutors would often change unexpectedly during a course – one student complained about “three changes of tutor on a module in one month while another mentioned “six or seven lecturer changes” – the assessment team also drew attention to the conditions of the module unit contracts used by Regent.

The OfS report explains how a “retainer” worth 20 per cent of pay was only paid if staff hit targets on six key performance indicators, of which one was a stipulation that 85 per cent of students should pass the module.

That contract condition created a “systemic and perverse incentive for excessively high marking from tutors”, with many modules, even those with high numbers, having 100 per cent pass rates, including five level 4 modules in 2020-21, each of which had 232 students.

One tutor reportedly told their class that they “try to make everybody pass”, the report says, while another said they “tried to pass everyone at least 40” and that they “usually don’t give less than 60, that is my marking”.

Those high pass marks – which the OfS suggested may relate to “excessive support provided to pass assessments” – came despite the college claiming to the TEF that about “80 per cent of students’ first language is not English”.

The regulator’s assessment team also raised concerns about how students could balance full-time study – which requires at least 26.5 hours a week of independent study, plus lectures – with full-time work, suggesting “academic support was often not effectively deployed for students managing the pressures of full-time employment and full-time study”.

In the lectures observed by the assessment team, staff often just read bullet points from slides or played videos, with 35 minutes of one 45-minute session devoted to videos.

Jean Arnold, deputy director of quality at the OfS, said the report “sets out the significant concerns of the assessment team across a range of areas which are relevant to a number of the OfS’ conditions around quality and standards”.

“All institutions offering these types of courses, including those delivered through partnerships, should be sure that their courses are high quality, that they are recruiting students with the potential to succeed on the course, and that students from all backgrounds receive good academic and pastoral support,” she added.

However, no regulatory decisions would be taken yet, Ms Arnold continued. “Before taking any regulatory decisions, the OfS will look closely at the assessment team’s findings and consider the next steps in the investigation, which may include considering whether any regulatory action is appropriate.”

In a statement, Selva Pankaj, RTC Education’s director, said the college was “confident that many of the concerns they have raised have been addressed” nearly two years after the OfS inspection in November 2022.

“We were already making improvements when OfS visited and implemented an additional action and monitoring plan in response to the draft report we received from OfS,” said Dr Pankaj, who insisted that “delivering continuous improvement to education for our students is our priority”.

“Since the OfS’ visits, we have improved our student-staff ratios to better meet the needs of both our students and our partners. We are pleased that this year’s National Student Survey found that 93 per cent of our students were satisfied with the quality of teaching. We are proud that we scored higher than the national average in five of the areas covered by the survey: teaching quality, learning opportunities, assessment and feedback, organisation and management, and mental well-being support services,” he said.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com