Further education colleges and specialist providers are set to lose the ability to opt out of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) under plans from the Office for Students (OfS) to overhaul its higher education quality assessment regime.
A consultation launched today proposes bringing every registered higher education provider into scope for a reformed “integrated” TEF from 2027. Until now, colleges and specialist providers with fewer than 500 undergraduate students have been able to opt out.
According to the OfS register, 45 colleges took part in the last TEF assessment round in 2023, while 90 chose not to. Several principals told FE Week the process was considered too bureaucratically burdensome for the scale of their higher education offer, with little perceived benefit.
The Association of Colleges (AoC) said a new quality assessment model for higher education must be “proportionate and cost-effective” for colleges.
Arti Saraswat, senior policy manager for higher education at the AoC, said: “We are concerned that the requirement for all colleges to participate in technical excellence frameworks will add to the burden and cost of regulation for colleges, particularly those with small volumes of higher education.
“We look forward to working with the OfS to establish a proportionate and cost-effective approach to regulating the quality of HE taught in FE colleges.”
The changes follow last year’s independent review of the OfS, which recommended integrating the TEF with the regulator’s category B conditions of registration to create a more coherent and transparent system.
Under the plans, evidence requirements for student outcomes would be “simplified” and folded into TEF assessments, using an “expanded” set of post-study indicators.
Measures for student experience will also be broadened and “aligned” with the existing B condition criteria, which are currently assessed separately.
Unlike Ofsted, which has dropped overall effectiveness grades, the OfS intends to retain an overall TEF rating alongside separate judgments on student experience and student outcomes.
Providers will continue to be judged gold, silver, bronze or ‘requires improvement’. But the OfS has set out a tougher package of incentives and interventions.
A ‘requires improvement’ judgment could see a provider stripped of degree-awarding powers or restricted in the number of students it can recruit. Bronze providers may also face student number limits and be barred from some kinds of public funding, while gold institutions could benefit from reduced regulatory scrutiny through longer TEF awards and potential access to new funding streams.
Jean Arnold, deputy director of quality at the OfS, said the new approach was designed to give students “a clear view of the quality of teaching and learning delivered by every registered university and college” and to “incentivise institutions to push for the highest level of quality.”
She added: “We know most universities and colleges in England are already delivering high quality education. It’s important that we minimise the burden on those institutions and recognise their good work, while responding more quickly when quality falls short or students are not being properly supported to succeed in their studies.”
The OfS also said it would recruit more academic and student assessors with college-based HE experience to evaluate providers.
The consultation outlines a “consideration” to include apprenticeships, which are currently optional, in new-style TEF assessments, and flags a “double regulation” risk with Ofsted.
“Including apprenticeships in the assessment of the student experience could constitute double regulation of this provision, given the responsibilities of Ofsted in this area. We would welcome feedback on the extent to which apprenticeships should be included in the future TEF.”
The consultation is open until December 11, 2025. The OfS plans to publish decisions in spring 2026 and launch a more detailed consultation in autumn 2026 ahead of the first new-style TEF cycle in 2027-28.
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