Students’ Union anti-TEF petition reaches over 1000 signatures

Once again we’re under threat of tuition fees being bumped up, this time it’s the TEF, or Teaching Excellence Framework, that universities in the UK are facing.

Led by Ali Day, our SU Education Officer, the Students’ Union have started a campaign against the TEF, named “Shef better than TEF”, hoping to lead the way for universities across the country.

TEF is a new scheme that the government want to introduce to the UK, which is a new way of monitoring and assessing teaching standards.

However, this scheme will legalise fee hikes and puts employers needs before students’ interests. If a university is seen to be providing good quality teaching by the TEF, they will then be allowed to raise their tuition fees with inflation.

Ali Day

By participating in the TEF, Sheffield Uni’s tuition fees could raise to £9250 for the 2017/18 academic year, and this is just the start. It may not seem like much of a jump, but the increases are cumulative, meaning that by 2020 fees could be at £10,000 a year.

But our SU is not happy about this. As part of the ‘Shef better than TEF’ campaign, a petition has been set up, in the form of an open letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, asking him to opt-out of the TEF. The petition has reached over 1000 signatures, and counting.

Within the letter, it’s pointed out that Sheffield was set up as a civic university, founded to be accessible to those least well off, for the people and for Sheffield. By participating in this framework, Sheffield University would be going against what it was founded on.

Furthermore, degrees are increasingly becoming commodified, turning students into consumers. Why push this further, especially as grants are now to be paid back?

Action is being taken to find alternatives to this framework and protect the interests of students, but in order to prevent it more universities around the country need to opt out.

To support the SU campaign against the Teaching Excellence Framework, sign the petition here.