DMU named in top three universities in UK in mock teaching assessment exercise

De Montfort University Leicester (DMU)’s ability to deliver great results and experience for students has placed it in the top three of UK universities in a mock assessment published today.

The Times Higher Education (THE) magazine carried out a detailed analysis of how universities might fare under the Government’s plan to rate teaching quality, known as the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

It found DMU stood out as “the exceptional performer” for the number of students in professional employment or postgraduate study six months after graduating. DMU was also named first for graduate employability.

Professor Dominic Shellard said: “We are a quality institution and we all place a high premium on the excellence of our teaching, the university experience which students enjoy and our record of strong graduate employability.
 
"It remains to be seen how DMU will perform when in due course the actual TEF is published but we will continue to work hard to deliver the very best education we can for the benefit of our students.”

The Government hopes the TEF will provide better information to students on educational standards, using metrics thought to matter most – graduate outcomes, drop-out rates and student satisfaction. Until now it has been research performance which has been used to rank universities.
 
THE’s model placed DMU third behind Aston and table-toppers Loughborough. Russell Group universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, meanwhile, were 28th and 12th place respectively.

John Gill, editor of the Times Higher Education, said it offered a new perspective on prestige: "This analysis highlights the dramatically different interpretation of university performance that may be offered by the teaching excellence framework."

The analysis was based on the same data sources as the TEF will use – student satisfaction, drop out rates and graduate employment. However, it did not take into account qualitative evidence which each institution will have to submit when the TEF begins.

The Government has said it expects to use its own analysis to break UK universities into three classes – “outstanding” “excellent” and “meets expectations”.  

The TEF will be piloted between 2016-17 and 2017-18 before formal assessments start in 2018-19.