The 'Let's Talk About TEF' research project was launched in February 2018 by 2017/18 Undergraduate Education Officer Mason Ammar. The project came from a desire to continue challenging the marketised nature of the TEF, following the successful NSS boycott campaign run by Bristol SU in 2016/17. It was decided that a qualitative focus group approach would be the best approach to the project given that a national survey had recently been conducted by Trendence, exploring students' perspectives on the TEF. The Trendence survey provided important insights into students' views on the TEF, but was largely quantitative and did not explore what possible alternatives there could be to the current TEF. 

Let's Talk About TEF aimed to explore Bristol students' perspectives on the TEF and to build an alternative Teaching Excellence Framework which would capture what teaching excellence really means to Bristol students.

Over February and March 2018 six focus groups were held with students, predominantly course reps, and one focus group was held with teaching staff. The report was presented to the University of Bristol's Education Committee and will later be submitted to the planned 2019 review of the TEF being conducted by the government. Below is the full report. If you have any questions you can contact our Research & Consultation Coordinator, Vasiliki Sogia (vasiliki.sogia@bristol.ac.uk) 

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