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Good morning. We're in Brighton for Labour Party Conference which got underway yesterday and all eyes are on new Shadow Ministers and their new party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Work on the TEF accelerates ahead of the coming green paper, the big NSS2 consultation begins and NUS take legal action over the grants to loans switch.
Labour Party Conference
Labour gathered in Brighton over the weekend to begin its annual conference. Wonkhe is there in force so we'll be covering what's said about universities closely - although HE is not high up the agenda this year - keep track of it all on Twitter and on the site. Since last week's email, the reshuffle of Labour's front bench has been completed. Gordon Marsden MP is to speak on higher education - he also has the skills and FE brief. You can read our profile of him here. Yvonne Fovargue MP will take the science brief alongside her existing responsibilities for consumer affairs. Although there's a host of dinners and meetings taking place in private during conference, Gordon Marsden will make his first public appearance speaking about higher education today at 12.30 at an NUS/Million+ fringe meeting called 'What next for Labour's higher education policy? Also look out for Jeremy Cobyn's big speech tomorrow afternoon at 2.15pm where there's every chance that he'll reiterate his intention to abolish fees as that idea begins to transfer over from the leadership campaign to party policy.
NSS Reloaded
On Thursday, HEFCE launch their consultation about NSS 2 - the next version of the student satisfaction survey along with the future iteration of Unistats. And it has been a long time coming: David Willetts' Students at the heart of the system in 2011 and broader drive on public information, plus research such as Graham Gibbs' seminal Dimensions of quality sparked an extended 'big think' in the sector about how to measure and provide information about quality. Much research was carried out, new ideas piloted, groups and committees rose and fell as sector policy makers spent years building an acceptable consensus about the way forward. Question 23 - about satisfaction with the students' union - is being replaced by new measures of student engagement, questions about course organisation and management are expected to be reframed and more changes besides will be made. The changes will probably amount to the biggest development of the survey since the introduction of NSS in 2005. And coming as they do ahead of the TEF, will take on an even greater importance. The first iteration of TEF to come online next year will rely on data from the old-style NSS, but future years will almost certainly use NSS 2, giving the survey added bite and upping the stakes for the coming consultation and period of development.
Speaking of the TEF....
We are now only weeks away from the publication of a Green Paper which will set out the government's plans for the TEF as well as their broader higher education policies - most notably those around regulation. And the sector is bracing itself for a break-neck period of consultation and implementation for the first version of the framework. If the Green Paper can be successfully ushered through the government communications grid in early October - as is the current working plan - then its accompanying consultation will wrap up by Christmas, a government response to follow in January, TEF assessment beginning in February and then decisions by June. Or so the government has been briefed to sector leaders.... The fast pace also says a lot about the likely design of the framework - there is no big new bureaucracy being built to deliver it all, instead existing bodies (likely HEFCE, QAA and HEA) will need to make do with what they have already in both manpower and information infrastructure to make it all work. If that doesn't sound particularly inspiring, then the real game is already seemingly around TEF 2. With the government pressing ahead with an early version of TEF this year no matter what, the sector's top wonks are already thinking through how TEF 2 will be designed and delivered. That is the version likely to be more robust given its longer gestation period and built as it will be on better quality information. It will also probably last longer than the quick and dirty first cycle too, and so it is fast starting to rise up the agenda.
On the site, John O'Leary argues that those designing the TEF will have taken more than a passing interest in the Times/Sunday Times league table out last week.
NUS takes government to court
The National Union of Students (NUS) has taken legal action against the government following the planned transfer of maintenance grants to loans. NUS has demanded that the equality implications of scrapping grants are considered before the government proceeds. It believes students from low socio-economic backgrounds and BME students are the most likely to be affected.
NUS has been discussing whether to employ this approach, which is similar to that it took with Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) cuts two years ago, over the last month. The process has the potential to delay the decision, as happened with DSAs, the consultation for which only closed recently. But the government has no legal obligation to do an equality assessment of its policies any more, after the Coalition axed the requirement in 2012. The union, which has been divided on some recent issues, most notably the TEF, told us that they are "taking a united hard line" on grants.
Odds and sods elsewhere
Full Fact ask 'Are there record numbers of young people going to university?'
The rest of the week's agenda
Monday 28th September
EVENT: Labour Party Conference 2015, Brighton (until Wednesday)
EVENT: ARMA Developing Systems and Processes workshop, London
EVENT: HEFCE HEIFES15 beginners/refresher seminar, London
REPORT: OFFA Annual guidance due in Autumn
At Labour Party Conference
12.30 NUS/Million+ Where Next for Labour's Higher Education Policy?
12.30 Demos/University of Bristol: Higher Expectations: Who Cares About Teaching In HE?
Tuesday 29th September
EVENT: ARMA Developing Research Strategy workshop, Leeds
EVENT: Inside Government Preventing and Detecting Radicalisation in Education, London
EVENT: Inside Government Women in STEM conference, London
At Labour Party Conference
2.15pm Jeremy Corbyn's speech
Wednesday 30th September
EVENT: Inside Government Embracing Digital Further Education forum, London
Thursday 1st October
EVENT: QSN Annual Conference 2015 Quality Management: Future Directions, Birmingham (until Friday)
EVENT: AoC Y&H HE in FE Network, Yorkshire
EVENT: ARMA Defining an Open Access Service webinar
EVENT: ARMA Enhancing and Improving Research Impact workshop, London
EVENT: LFHE Research Team Leadership program, Birmingham
EVENT: LFHE Student and Staff as Governor conference, Edinburgh
REPORT: THE World University Rankings
REPORT: HEFCE consultation on future of NSS and Unistats
Friday 2nd October
EVENT: SRHE Academic identity in the digital university workshop, London
EVENT: LFHE Policy into Practice: The Leadership Challenge conference, Manchester
EVENT: Green Party Conference 2015, Bournemouth (until Monday)
Sunday 4th October
EVENT: Conservative Party Conference 2015, Manchester (until Wednesday)
Let me know what we missed or what else you'd like to see in the Monday morning briefing. Have a great week.
Mark
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