What the TEF is going on?

(Brace yourselves; it’s a long one…)

It’s safe to say that national Higher Education (HE) is in a huge state of flux at the moment, and a lot of changes have happened or are about to happen which will drastically affect what it is like to be a student in the UK. But what actually is going on?

In November 2015, the UK Government released its Higher Education Green Paper, which proposed a lot of changes to HE as we know it. It included, amongst other recommendations;

• The introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which is a “quality measure” for universities, and upon passing certain levels of the TEF universities will be able to raise their fees
• The merger of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) to form the Office for Students (OfS), which would be the HE sector regulator and “student champion” – this currently does not (and there are no plans to) include a reserved seat for a student
• Making it easier for competitor institutions to open and be granted degree awarding powers
• Questioned the accountability and transparency of students’ unions (in response, NUS launches their #LoveSUs campaign, which showed the impact of SUs around the UK, and the scrutiny of SUs has been lessened in following government reports)

The Green Paper was just the beginning of HE reform and formed the basis for the HE White Paper. The White Paper was released in May 2016, and was followed closely by the Higher Education & Research (HE) Bill which the Queen announced in her latest speech. The White Paper luckily only contains 3 paragraphs about very low level changes to SUs. It also still recommends a lot that was mentioned in the Green Paper, particularly the points above. From the HE Bill, the TEF is planned to be introduced as England only initially so it is unclear as to how this will affect Welsh universities in the near future, and whether Welsh universities will opt in and raise their fees. The OfS will still replace HEFCE and OFFA, and will take on the responsibilities of giving degree awarding powers, and will run a register of providers so students can see the fees of all providers etc. The OfS will also have power to grant money to institutions, and with no reserved student space, the amount of power that the OfS will have is concerning. But where are we now with this? The HE Bill had its second reading in parliament on 19^th July 2016 and is now at a committee stage, reporting again in October. Despite not inviting students, NUS or the QAA to give evidence on the Bill during the committee stage, NUS action highlighted the need for student input and were eventually invited to give evidence along with the QAA CEO on Thursday 8^th September. This evidence was seemingly ignored by the committee, and the committee also voted on whether students should sit on the Board of the OfS, and they voted against this, so still no students have a place on the Board which says it is the “student champion”.

On 23^rd June 2016, the British public voted in a referendum to leave the European Union (EU), and it has become clear since the decision to leave that the consequences of this are fairly unknown. Although the referendum result is not the one that everyone wanted, the impact will be felt everyone, especially young people and students, as the consequences of Brexit become apparent. But what does Brexit mean for students? In short, we don’t really know. There could be the potential for fee changes/increases once Britain officially leaves the EU for British students who want to study abroad, and depending on the progress of negotiations, British students could be required to have a visa to study abroad. However, Erasmus+ have assured students that there will be no immediate changes to their schemes. All EU nationals will still receive their loan funding until the end of their courses, as with existing bursaries, however universities may be individually looking to change their own eligibility rules from now on. A lot of courses and universities have previously received a large amount of funding from the EU, especially for research, and changes to this could have a huge impact on the viability of postgraduate study and the range of courses that can be offered at UK universities. EU students should not be afraid that they are no longer welcome to study here either, especially at Aberystwyth. Aberystwyth University released a statement following Brexit about the impacts for us in particular, which can be read here, and the university website also has an FAQ page on Brexit here. The impact of Brexit will be felt by all UK universities and their students’ unions, but we must all work together positively in this time of change to ensure progress.

Along with all of the HE changes which are happening across the UK, Wales is having its own shake up in HE, particularly around funding. In March 2016, Professor Ellen Hazelkorn published the Hazelkorn Report, which is a review into post-16 education in Wales. Amongst other recommendations, the report proposes that the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) is replaced with the Teritiary Education Authority (TEA – due to the unfortunate acronym they may change this to “Tertiary Education Council” (TEC)). This would mean merging the regulation of HE and further education (FE) under the title “post-16”, creating a holistic approach to post-16 education, and equitable treatment of each sector – HE, FE and apprenticeships. Welsh Government are yet to respond to the Hazelkorn Report and so the outcomes are still unclear.

In addition to the Hazelkorn Report, the Diamond Review has also been undertaken in Wales. The Diamond Review is a Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance Arrangements in Wales, chaired by Sir Professor Ian Diamond, and it began in April 2014. The final report is due to be released on September 27^th this year, and to be quite honest we’re not really sure of the exact changes it is going to recommend. The review has a remit for higher education funding, but will also focus on widening access to HE, part-time and postgraduate funding and ensuring the long term financial stability of HE in Wales. An interim report of the Diamond Review was publish in December 2015, and can be read here. Although the recommendations from the report are yet unknown, it is clear that a change will be made to the current HE funding system in Wales. However, we hope that the Diamond Review will address issues surrounding the real cost of education and the living costs that students face whilst at university.

I will be providing updates to these topics as information is released, so keep an eye out for more information coming soon. If anyone is concerned about the consequences of these changes, or wants to know more about changes in national HE, you can get in touch with me for more information.