Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 8 | Page 76

| 77 76 | JADE equalised the perceived divide between research and teaching in the sector. The final major keynote for the day was Dr. Geoff Stoakes from the HEA project division. His talk focussed on TEF level 3 (discipline level) and chalked up the recent extension of the national deadline as an indicator of the complexity of moving in this direction from an institutional level and allow breathing space for a “lessons learned” ethos coming out of TEF level 2. This seems to be bouncing between the Houses of Lords and Commons, which is leading, in his opinion, to the 2 year delay we now face. There was a feeling within the audience that discipline-level TEF could identify pockets of poor practice as an unintended outcome, which seemed like a difficult idea to embrace for many. The discussion inevitably turned to metrics for measuring “quality” at TEF level 3, with arguments all-round about the sustainability and reliability of any measures that emerge. There were significant concerns over the exclusion of international students from metrics, especially post-degree metrics, which many felt were subordinating international students unfairly. The parting points of this presentation was raising awareness of an interesting feed-in mechanism that various HEA projects exploring “learning gain” might have on this extended TEF timetable, which he hoped would increase the validity of measurement metrics selected at TEF level 3 to actually measure what they set out to measure (an issue within that audience that concerned many colleagues). In all this, the final message (framed more as a caution) was that it will be critical to communicate all of this complexity to our students to allow them to make a real informed choice and he finished on a more positive note suggesting that TEF was a key opportunity to increase the profile of Learning and Teaching and, by extension, higher education research. Thank you all for joining us for another edition of JADE and remember, keep writing! Dr. Russell Crawford Managing Editor of JADE [email protected]