The Impact of TEF and Proposed Sector Changes on Academic Libraries

Liz JollyChair, SCONUL

Director, Library and Information ServicesTeesside University

Talis Insight Europe 2016

Outline• Green Paper• Other changes• What does this mean for Academic Libraries?

– Content, Space, Learners, Researchers• Future Roles• Alignment

Teesside University• 1930 Constantine College• 1970 Teesside Polytechnic• 1992 University of Teesside• 2009 Teesside University• 21, 000 students (14,000 FTE)• 2,300 staff

• Times Higher Education University of the Year 2010

• Investors in People Gold (2012, 2014)• Queens Anniversary Prize 2013-15

• Mission:Teesside University generates and applies knowledge that contributes to the economic, social and cultural success of students, partners and the communities we serve.Through education enriched by research, innovation, and engagement with business and the professions, we transform lives and economies

Green Paper• ‘Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student

Choice’– Teaching Excellence Framework– Degree classifications– HEFCE– Research– New entrants– Social Mobility– Freedom of Information

Green Paper• Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)

– Government monitoring and assessment of the quality of teaching in England’s universities.

– Stated aims include• Ensuring all students receive an excellent teaching experience that

encourages original thinking, drives up engagement and prepares them for the world of work

• building a culture where teaching has equal status with research, with great teachers enjoying the same professional recognition and opportunities for career and pay progression as great researchers

Green Paper• Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)

– Measures including NSS data; student retention rates and graduate employment.

– Criteria which are important to students– Metrics to be determined– Assessment panels: academic experts in teaching and learning,

students employers.

Green Paper• TEF

– Introduction of three or four levels of teaching excellence

– “financial incentives” (maximum fees) to be determimed according to the level awarded for an institution.

– Will lead fees to increasingly differentiate

Green Paper• HEFCE

– Office for Students (OfS) to be created by merging HEFCE and OFFA– primary objectives of promoting the student interest. – responsibility for access agreements, teaching funding, TEF and quality

assurance – allocation of teaching grant to be decided

Green Paper• Research

– may include the establishment of a new body to replace HEFCE’s role in grant allocation,

– or a single overarching body bringing this together with the Research Council functions

– The next REF will be held “by 2021” and the paper proposes the use of data and metrics

Green Paper• New entrants

– There will be a faster process for new bodies to become universities and for the granting of degree awarding powers.

– current validation arrangements for degrees ‘may be a barrier to entry to new providers and the power to validate degrees may pass to the OfS

Green Paper• Degree Classifications

– suggests that degree inflation is an issue across the sector – ‘encouragement’ of use of a grade point average system,

to supplement the current degree classification system. • Freedom of Information Act

– Universities may be given exemption from Freedom of Information requirement

Green Paper• Social Mobility

– recruitment of and outcomes for under represented groups

– UUK Social Mobility Advisory Group– Possible introduction of “name blind” applications– Possible targets for widening participation

Research• Nurse Review• Stern Review of the Research

Excellence Framework (REF)• Tickell Review of Open Access• Implementation of HEFCE

Open Access Policy

Also…• HEFCE: Revised Operating Model for Quality Assessment• IFS: Graduate Earnings report• HESA: Review of destinations and outcomes for leavers from HE

• NUS vote to ‘sabotage’/ boycott NSS and DELHE

So what does this mean for Academic Libraries?

• The ‘neo-liberal turn’?• Teaching before learning• Students as customers / consumers..• Proving value• Contribution learning analytics• Contribution to learning gain• Research Support

Or…?• Waiting for the great leap forward• Pedagogy and Heutagogy• Students as producer• Proving impact• Ethics of information analytics• Digital literacies and critical thinking• Scholarly communication

Academic Libraries • “Academic libraries are here to enable and enhance learning

in all its forms - whether it be the learning of a first year undergraduate coming to terms with what is meant by higher education or the learning of a Nobel Prize winning scientist seeking to push forwards the frontiers of her discipline”

Peter Brophy (2005)

At a Tipping Point (OCLC)• “ The (on campus) library is distinctly associated with providing the

space, tools and information to get work done”

• “Library services match the needs of online learners but the perceptions do not….making convenience the new context for libraries can make all online learners library users”

2014

Library staff “may often think of their work as fundamentally involved with service delivery” Scott Bennett 2015

Academic Libraries

Resources

Space

Library

Staff - services- support

Academic Libraries

“to enable and enhance learning in all its forms”

Academic Libraries

Content and Academic Communication

StaffPedagogy / Learner Heutagogy

Spaces

T e c h n o l o g y

Content and Academic Communication• “As different types and methods of scholarly communication are

becoming more prevalent…librarians will be expected to stay up to date on the legitimacy of these impact of these innovative approaches and their impact in the greater research community.”

• “There will be more opportunities for libraries to drive and engage in discussions about efficient ways to make access a priority for the long term”

NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition

Spaces• “Library space will need to be shared with a variety of partners, and

it is likely that the distinction between the library and other informal campus space will blur.”

David Lewis 2007

• “Who owns the space?...How will we shape the experience of ‘becoming’ in the library?”

Scott Bennett 2015

Learners (1)• “Student engagement represents both the time and energy

students invest in educationally purposeful activities and the effort institutions devote to using effective educational practices”

Kuh et al 2009

• “Students tend to be more engaged with learning on the whole if they engage with library resources, interact with library staff, and spend time using libraries”

Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE)

Learners (2)• “Student as Producer emphasises the role of the student as

collaborators in the production of knowledge… It is fundamental to everything we do”

University of Lincoln

• “Participatory design provides methods for including non-traditional participants…[including] students in projects to design and develop new library technologies, spaces, and services. “

Nancy Fried Foster

Researchers• “The response to changes in the research environment (funder

requirements, publication modes and associated legal issues, e-access to information sources etc.) needs a concerted and collaborative response by libraries if they are to be accepted as offering essential and effective research support. Formalised, inter-institutional approaches to acquisition, storage and access, including metadata, will not only help libraries to realise opportunities, it will also address the urgent issues of reduced budgets.”

RLUK

Future roles? (1)• Creative Learning Specialist• UX Design Librarian• Outreach/Community

Engagement Specialist• Adaptive Learning Specialist ACRL 2015

Future Roles (2)• From hybrid individual to

multiprofessional team• ‘Salad not soup’ (Weaver and

Robers)• Working across multiple

environments

Photo courtesy Jeremy Keith

Alignment (1)• Continuing learn and develop

as a reflective practitioner• Embracing radical change• Aligning library strategies and

impact to institutional mission and strategic aims

Alignment (2)• Clear articulation of our

professional skills and what we can contribute

• Learning to operate in broader institutional context

• Speaking the right language• Working collaboratively

Partnerships and Collaboration“If UK higher education is going to prosper in the contemporary world it is going to have to become messier, less precious, more flexible and significantly more co-operative.”

David Watson (2015)

“The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities”

David Lankes 2011

Outline• Green Paper• Other changes• What does this mean for Academic Libraries?

– Content, Space, Learners, Researchers• Future Roles• Alignment

Liz JollyDirectorLibrary and Information ServicesTeesside University MiddlesbroughTS1 3BA liz.jolly@tees.ac.uk @liz_jolly