Durham University fires pure sass in spicy email announcing it will contest silver TEF rating

Durham University will appeal against its Silver Award rating in the teaching excellence framework test (TEF), a new government-backed assessment of higher education institutions in the UK.

The plans were announced in an email sent to all students by Durham’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, Prof. Alan Houston, this afternoon.

The email appeared to question the TEF with a healthy dose of sass, claiming that “no rating system is perfect”, and announcing that Durham planned to appeal after “having reviewed TEF data and procedures”.

Durham was confidently described as “world-leading”, “exceptional”, and “second to none.”

Dunelms are “some of the most sought-after graduates in the world”, the email claimed, before highlighting that the TEF is just “one indicator” of the university’s performance, stressing that many others have placed Durham in the UK top 5 and world top 100.

Durham is one of 67 universities to have been rated Silver.

Among the 43 institutions that were rated Gold are Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, and Newcastle.