There is one clear lesson from the review of the teaching excellence framework and the concerns about grade inflation, and it represents a massive slap in the face to all those who have placed learning and teaching at the forefront of their educational priorities.
It is that all the major initiatives to enhance learning and teaching of the past 20 years or so (the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning, the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund, the Learning and Teaching Support Network, the Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, the Higher Education Academy, the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, the National Teaching Fellowships, the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning, HEA Fellowships, institutional schemes) in effect count for naught if they have led – as they should – to improved student achievement because that improved achievement is regarded, and dismissed and/or penalised, as grade inflation.
Paul Kleiman
Visiting professor, Middlesex University and Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance
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