The predicted results of the UK teaching excellence framework are in

Mock TEF results give a picture of which UK universities might be judged best for teaching under new government initiative

Rankings
Rankings for Students

Carly Minsky

June 22 2016

Students putting hands up in lecture theatre

Predictions for the results of the UK government’s teaching excellence framework (TEF), calculated and published by the Times Higher Education today, reveal a top 10 surprisingly absent of Russell Group universities.

The TEF will see the UK government monitor and assess the quality of teaching in the nation's universities, making the information available to all in a bid to drive up the quality of education. The results will no doubt be of interest to anyone considering studying in the UK.

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Universities in England's Midlands triumph – the top three institutions are based in Loughborough, Birmingham and Leicester – while not one London university appears in the top 30 per cent of the 120 ranked institutions.

The ranking is calculated from “relative scores” representing how far above or below expectations the universities perform on three metrics: graduate employment, student satisfaction and degree completion rates.

Mock TEF performance breakdown:

Prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge perform much better according to absolute scores rather than those benchmarked for factors such as the proportion of students studying different subjects, entry requirements, students’ age, ethnicity and gender.

Even using these benchmarked scores, both Oxford and Cambridge are counted among the top 30 per cent – the threshold suggested by the government for an “outstanding” classification.

Out of the 36 universities predicted to fall in the “outstanding” band (see below), all but one met or exceeded expectations for student satisfaction. However, four universities underperform on the graduate destinations criteria. Information on universities in the other bandings - "excellent" and "meets expectations" - can be found here, along with the full methodology.

Overall, the TEF predictions go some way to showing the disparity between universities that achieve high student satisfaction, completion rates and graduate outcomes due, in part, to selecting students who are likely to succeed based on contextual factors or their specific degree programme, and those that add value to students’ experience through excellent teaching.

While this mock TEF is based on the government’s own metrics, the methodology was limited by publicly available benchmarks, and doesn’t take into account other supporting evidence that universities will be able to submit themselves.

TEF predictions: the 36 'outstanding' universities

Benchmarked TEF Rank	Absolute TEF Rank	University	Benchmarked TEF Score
1	5	Loughborough University	100.0
2	13	Aston University	97.9
3	45	De Montfort University	93.9
4	15	Swansea University	93.7
5	=22	University of Kent	91.8
6	34	Coventry University	91.4
7	=10	Keele University	89.3
8	12	University of Surrey	86.3
9	=2	University of Bath	84.7
10	7	Lancaster University	84.1
11	=42	University of Winchester	82.7
12	1	University of Cambridge	82.5
13	=37	University of Essex	81.9
14	54	University of Lincoln	80.6
15	20	University of Sussex	79.3
16	6	Durham University	79.1
17	53	University of Huddersfield	79.0
18	=10	University of Birmingham	78.7
19	50	University of Portsmouth	76.6
=20	62	University of Chichester	76.2
=20	33	Oxford Brookes University	76.2
22	8	University of Exeter	76.0
23	19	University of East Anglia	74.7
24	9	Newcastle University	73.7
25	14	University of Leeds	73.0
26	56	Trent University	72.2
27	16	Cardiff University	71.0
28	4	University of Oxford	70.3
29	57	Bishop Grosseteste University	70.2
30	72	Trinity University	68.3
31	59	University of Bradford	68.0
32	49	Bangor University	67.5
33	51	Northumbria University	67.2
34	55	York St John University	67.0
35	31	University of Reading	66.8
36	=22	Queen's University Belfast	65.9