OfS proposes revised Teaching Excellence Framework to drive up the quality of education for students

In its proposed strategy for 2025-30, the OfS set out its intention to work with institutions to develop a more coherent and efficient quality system that drives continuous improvement across the sector.

Today’s proposals aim to integrate the OfS’s existing assessment activity with the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The future revised TEF would assess how each registered higher education institution meets the OfS’s quality requirements and the extent to which it exceeds these expectations to deliver the highest quality of teaching and learning for students.

Equality of opportunity would be embedded in the new approach, with an aim to ensure that students from all backgrounds can experience high quality education and achieve positive outcomes.

To provide clear information for students about the level of quality delivered by different institutions, the OfS would publish ratings for universities and colleges. These ratings would be linked to strengthened incentives. Institutions that deliver the highest quality would be encouraged to continue their work and those that just meet the minimum quality requirements would be pushed to raise the level of quality for their students. Where quality falls short of the minimum requirements, the OfS would intervene as appropriate to ensure improvements are made.

The OfS would also monitor risks to quality in between an institution’s TEF assessment in a more timely and transparent way, allowing it to respond more rapidly if students are at increased risk of receiving poor quality higher education.

The revised TEF would run on a cyclical basis, with the frequency of an institution’s assessment dependent on its rating and ongoing risk monitoring. This would reduce burden on institutions that are delivering the highest quality higher education and ensuring good outcomes for students, while increasing scrutiny on those that need to improve. The first cycle of assessments would focus on undergraduate provision, with plans to include postgraduate taught provision from the second assessment cycle onwards.

The OfS would continue to assess and rate the quality of the student experience, based on submissions from institutions, National Student Survey (NSS) responses, and input from students. The OfS is also considering how to assess and rate student outcomes in a more streamlined way, using a range of available data to measure how far students succeed in and beyond their studies.

Commenting on the proposed system, OfS Deputy Director of Quality, Jean Arnold said:

‘Students have told us that they want high quality teaching, strong academic support, access to the resources they need, and qualifications that are credible and career enhancing. They also expect their university or college to listen to them and respond to their needs.

‘With our proposed new quality assessment system, we aim to make sure every institution registered with the OfS lives up to these expectations, is incentivised to push for the highest level of quality and can quickly take action to address issues. We also want students to have clearer information and confidence in the quality of education and outcomes they receive.

‘We know most universities and colleges in England are already delivering high quality education. It’s important that we minimise the burden on those institutions and recognise their good work, while responding more quickly when quality falls short or students are not being properly supported to succeed in their studies.

‘I’d like to thank the students, academic experts and sector representatives who have helped shape today’s proposals with their views. Their feedback has helped us to ensure our new approach can reflect the diversity of England’s higher education sector and its student population, and we will continue to engage with them throughout the consultation period.

‘We’re now inviting institutions of all types and sizes, students, awarding bodies, and others to tell us what they think of our proposals to drive up quality in higher education and maintain public confidence in the English higher education sector.’

Notes

1. The Office for Students is the independent regulator for higher education in England. We are currently developing a new strategy for 2025-2030 which seeks to ensure that students from all backgrounds benefit from high quality higher education, delivered by a diverse, sustainable sector that continues to improve.
2. You can respond to the consultation by filling out the online form.
3. The OfS is hosting a range of webinars and an in-person event where you can find out more about the proposals, ask questions and give feedback. You can register for these events on our website.
4. The OfS plans to publish its decisions on the broad approach to quality after considering consultation responses in spring 2026. We plan to consult in more detail on the methodologies, guidance, data and how the assessments would work in practice in autumn 2026.
5. The first cycle of assessments under the revised system are expected to commence in the 2027-28 academic year.