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Good morning. A few minutes ago, HEFCE published its long awaited consultation on future approaches to quality assessment that we extensively previewed here a few weeks ago. And so the week starts with the agenda very firmly set, and the quality debate ready to open up far more widely. The Counter Terrorism and Security Act comes in to force on Wednesday and the final countdown to next week's Budget begins.
What did you do in the quality wars?
This morning HEFCE has published it's consultation on the future of quality assessment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As expected, its proposals envisage an end to institutional review - to be replaced by a better external examiner system, greater responsibility of governors and further use of metrics.
On Friday last week we had expected universities & science minister Jo Johnson to give a speech to the sector setting out his position on HE, including further detail on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The speech was cancelled at the very last minute, clearing the way for HEFCE's consultation to be published this morning without a competing narrative to disrupt it.
But we hear that the speech might yet be rescheduled for this week, or sometime very soon and the TEF clearly isn't going anywhere - we are now told to expect a consultation in the Autumn and more detail about it all soon. HEFCE are keen to dispel the perception that two parallel quality frameworks in England are now emerging, but their consultation concedes that the government's TEF might include some form of peer or cyclical review, which has sent speculation about the future shape of the TEF in to overdrive, and caused many to suspect that the demise of institutional review (and QAA along with it) has been greatly exaggerated.
There's a huge amount to digest, but as a starter for ten, we have three brand new articles this morning looking at what's going on:
1. It's a tale of two quality systems - a piece by me in which I look at the relationship between these proposals and the TEF, alternative providers as well as the initial sector response to the plans.
2. Noted quality wonk Derfel Owen assesses the proposals and finds HEFCE to be pressing the 'reset' button on UK HE (maybe needlessly?)
3. Former QAA Assistant Director David Cairns imagines the blanks and omissions in the plans, particularly around the status of the quality code and of debates about standards.
Plenty more will follow as we assess the proposals and the political twists and turns in detail through the consultation period which runs to mid-September. HEFCE have also just published two other important documents which we have not had advanced sight of, but will return to on the site:
1- A report from KPMG which controversially estimates the overall cost to the sector of the current quality regime to be £1bn.
2- A report from HEA commissioned by HEFCE in to the external examiner system, which was heavily referenced in HEFCE's consultation document.
For everything else, visit our Quality tag for everything so far under one roof.
Last-ditch budget negotiations
Whitehall is in the final throes of locking down its settlement for the year ahead as the Chancellor will be making his emergency budget on Wednesday of next week which should set the overall spending envelope for the next year and fire the starting gun on the coming spending review. We already know that BIS need to find £450m this year, and expect far deeper cuts to come out of the spending review. None of the available options look good, and later this week on the site we'll be previewing the difficult choices that are being made and their implications for the sector.
You might have missed on Wonkhe
Udi Datta writes on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and what it might mean for higher education policy. Paul Greatrix on Registrarism asks ten awkward questions about the Scottish HE governance bill. And on Policy Watch we had a look at the early results of the Destination of Leavers Survey which was published last week.
Odds and sods elsewhere
The Scotsman says that 'new ideas are needed on university access'. Some parts of the ring-wing press seem intent on ramping up fears about international students and there have been a host of stories over the past few days from every angle - loans and finance, standards, culture and integration, behaviour and practices. I'm choosing not to link to them (partly because there's so many and party because they're so awful) but the timing is certainly interesting, with the ongoing battle at the heart of government about student immigration as hot as it has ever been.
The rest of the week's higher education agenda
Monday
REPORT: HEFCE Quality Assessment Consultation
REPORT: HEA Review of External Examiners
REPORT: HEFCE/KPMG costings of quality system
Tuesday
EVENT: GovKnow Policy priorities for Higher Education conference, London
EVENT: University of Leicester's 3rd Learning and Teaching Conference, Leicester
EVENT: Westminster Forum Priorities for science and innovation policy, London
EVENT: HEFCW Quality Assessment Review Steering Group seminar, Wales
Wednesday
EVENT: IAFOR The European Conference on Education 2015, Brighton (till 5th July)
EVENT: FACE 2015 conference, Wales (till 3rd July)
EVENT: UKCISA Annual Conference, Brighton (till 3rd July)
EVENT: BUTEX Increasing student numbers symposium, Staffordshire
EVENT: ECU Equality and Diversity in Scottish HEIs report launch, Edinburgh
EVENT: Westminster Forum Competition and Regulation conference, London
REPORT: GuildHE Excellence in Diversity plus London launch
PLUS: Counter Terrorism and Security Act comes into force
Thursday
EVENT: UKCGE Annual Conference, Glasgow (till 3rd July)
REPORT: HESA Performance Indicators – leavers in employment
REPORT: Leadership Foundation: The personal and the political in leadership
Friday
MEETING: Wonkhe company board
EVENT: AUA Managing Change in HE forum, London
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9 days until the emergency budget
21 days until Parliamentary recess
44 days until A level results day
80 days left of HEFCE's consultation on quality assessment
....and the wonkery will go on.
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