The datafication of higher education: examining universities’ conceptions and articulations of ‘teaching quality’

ABSTRACT

Higher education is increasingly defined by data, indicators and metrics. The paper examines how English universities conceptualise and articulate their perspectives on ‘teaching quality’ in the context of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) in the UK. By adopting a qualitative thematic analysis approach, the author examines how a sample of English higher education institutions [n = 18] articulated their perspectives on teaching quality by analysing the ‘teaching quality’ section of their qualitative TEF submissions. The findings have shown that higher education policies, such as TEF, have greatly shaped institutions’ perspectives on teaching quality and teaching excellence. In turn, universities’ articulation of teaching excellence appeared to have significant implications for their management and academic practices, such as institution priorities, resource allocations, performance evaluation and academic career development.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching excellence
• teaching quality
• education policy
• higher education
• marketisation
• measurement culture

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Dr Margaret Wood for ongoing conversations about discourses of teaching excellence in higher education. Also, the author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript. The paper is developed from a talk given at the Critical Education Policy Research Annual Conference at The University of Manchester on 26 June 2019.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Feng Su

Feng Su is  Principal Lecturer and Head of Education Studies at Liverpool Hope University, UK. His main research interests and writings are located within the following areas: education policy, the development of the learner in higher education settings, academic practice and professional learning. His most recent books include Pursuing Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: Towards an Inclusive Perspective (authored with Wood, 2021); and Cosmopolitan Perspectives on Academic Leadership in Higher Education (edited with Wood, 2017).