Last month, the Office for Students (OfS) published a consultation on changes to quality regulation, including the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). You can read it here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/reforms-to-quality-regulation/consultation-on-the-future-approach-to-quality-regulation/about-this-consultation/
Recent estimates by Research England indicate there are between 30,000-50,000 technicians working in UK higher education (HE). According to a study by Wragg et al., (2022): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0309877X.2023.2231380 86% of technicians teach and support learning, which rises to 95% within the creative arts. Recognising, developing, and evidencing how this significant proportion of the HE workforce shapes the student experience, contributes to excellent teaching, and supports positive graduate outcomes should be a strategic no-brainer.
My assessment of the TEF proposals is that they will elevate the importance of teaching and learning across all roles, including technicians. Helpfully, they coincide with Jisc’s very welcome, if a little overdue, review of the HESA Staff Record that looks set to make technicians’ teaching contributions and qualifications explicit and quantifiable (Lucy Van Essen-Fishman explains this in her blog: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/insight/08-07-2024/what-do-we-know-about-technicians).
REF is also moving towards greater professional inclusivity via proposed changes to the People, Culture and Environment element recognising technicians’ contributions to research. This excellent work is being overseen by my former line manager at the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), Simon Macklin, and technician champion/advocate, Director of the Technician Commitment and co-author, Kelly Vere. Together, these shifts in the visibility of technician workforce combined with increased recognition in teaching (TEF) and research (REF), chip away at HE’s false binary between academics and ‘everyone else’.
Where the TEF should go further
In my view, the TEF proposals could, and should, go further. The interpretation of the detail will come down to institutional responses and individual missions, but the B Conditions of Registration set out by the Office for Students (OfS) (quality; reliable standards; positive outcomes for all students) should explicitly reflect educational factors materially influenced by technical staff. For example, B2 (sufficient resources and support) and B4 (effective, valid and reliable assessment). In my former role as Director of Technical Learning at UCA, we did this exceptionally well, and the performance of the technical team as teachers was one of just two areas in which our provider submission was rated outstanding.
In a constructively aligned curriculum, environmental, proactive and reactive pedagogies must align with the intended learning outcomes and assessment criteria. Having a ‘hidden curriculum’ is not helpful in contemporary HE; this path leads to disorganisation, disparity and dissatisfaction. It is much more challenging to quality control, assure, or enhance pedagogies you can’t see. Authentic assessment in practical disciplines demands assessors who understand the practice as practitioners (rather than commentators or connoisseurs) themselves, and can decode knowledge embodied in artefacts. It’s easy to forget that assessment is of learning, not just the artefact. B4 should drive institutions to include technicians in diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment.
Whether or how to measure ‘excellent teaching’ is contested, but the Department for Education offers the following definition ‘Teaching excellence is defined broadly to include teaching quality, the learning environment, and student outcomes and learning gain’. Technician practices sit squarely in this domain; they are often central in studios, workshops and labs, yet they remain under-recognised in institutional strategy, even if the sector discourse is catching up. I was fortunate to contribute to the TALENT Commission, see: https://itss.org.uk/talent-legacy/talent-commission-report/, which lobbied for clearer recording of how technical staff deliver teaching and learning (Recommendation R3). With Jisc, REF and TEF all inching in the right direction, there are real reasons for optimism.
What the NSS adds
Another point to note is that TEF now draws on the revised National Student Survey (NSS) to broaden its student-experience metrics. More enlightened institutions are likely to begin to seek a more evidence-informed view of how the technical community shapes the student experience beyond the usual focus on the ‘access to subject-specific resources (equipment, facilities, software)’ question, that is all too frequently regarded as the ‘technical’ measure. The technician contribution across the full survey remains poorly understood, there are significant opportunities and gains to be found in these metrics with a better understood and meaningfully engaged technical team.
The ‘Technical Turn’
If you have read any of my writing in the past, then you’ll likely be familiar with my proposition that the last two decades in HE have characterised what I call a ‘Technical Turn’. I use the word ‘Turn’, as others do, to signal a defining shift in direction; a change in culture, structure, or priorities. For example, the ‘Digital Turn’ references the shift from analogue to digital technologies (something I felt keenly as a photographer with a degree earned in darkrooms in the late 1990s, and then seeking work as a graduate in the new Photoshop era), or the ‘Academic Turn’ (when many former polytechnics transitioned into universities), or the ‘Competency Turn’ which charts how the emphasis of HE has orientated from scholarship and knowledge, towards skills, competencies and employability. In short, there are plenty of twists and turns in HE, but a ‘Turn’ is not a single event; rather, it is a period of transformation. I conceive of the Technical Turn as a period in which technicians have moved from backstage invisibility to foregrounded roles in teaching and supporting learning.
I’ve theorised elsewhere that this transformation has occurred as a consequence of a perfect storm of PEST Factors that have impacted HE, in brief:
- Political: Skills/competency/tech focus, employability, Regulation (TEF, REF) and Jisc’s Staff Record reforms pull technician teaching into view.
- Economic: Fees, VFM, Pressure on quality, performativity, and cost bases demand smarter deployment of expert practitioners.
- Social: Diversification, Changes to academic roles, ‘Third Space’, Demand for authentic, practice-based learning, and safer, more inclusive studios and labs.
- Technological: Rapid change (digital/hybrid workflows, AI, new materials) requires specialist pedagogy to translate tools into learning.
Two decades ago, calling technical delivery ‘teaching’ raised eyebrows; it was exclusively described as ‘demonstrating’ and held in lower regard. Today, regulatory frameworks such as TEF and sector analysis increasingly acknowledge technician pedagogies. With TEF moving to a universal, cyclical regime and the HESA staff-record review set to surface technician roles and (potentially) teaching qualifications, and contribution to research via REF, institutions must act quickly to professionalise and evidence technical teams. The direction of travel points to:
- TEF will connect B1/B2/B4 to what students actually achieve in studios, workshops and labs, where technicians teach and support learning.
- HESA Staff Record looks set to distinguish technical roles and qualifications, making them countable, comparable, and ‘costable’.
- The NSS (Learning Opportunities/Resources) will carry more weight in judgements and student communications. Where technicians shape access, learning and practical competences and confidence, the NSS will reflect it, positively for those who understand it, or otherwise for those that do not.
- Changes to REF have the potential to ensure institutionally inclusive reporting, fair attribution for technicians, and recognition for staff who conduct and support research in HE.
What leaders should do next
- Join the Technician Commitment as a strategic driver and deliver on Visibility, Recognition, Career Development, Sustainability.
- Use the TALENT Commission Report, especially the chapter ‘Technicians as Educators’ to devise or refresh your Technical Strategy in the context of learning and teaching.
- Quick wins: map B2/B4 evidence to technician practice; support AdvanceHE Fellowships as HESA recognised teaching qualifications (AFHEA/FHEA); include technicians in programme approval and assessment design; and commit to exploring how technicians contribute to the full spectrum of experiences that the NSS charts.
I urge leaders and senior staff to challenge outdated stereotypes of technicians’ roles. They don’t just keep facilities running or deliver basic inductions (though this is important work too); they teach, influence student experience and are integral to university missions. Integrating the technical team effectively with academic teams leads to enhanced quality and efficiency for all stakeholders. If the carrot doesn’t shift culture sufficiently, perhaps the stick will. The forthcoming TEF has teeth, the BBC reported last week that provider outcomes may influence the fees institutions can charge, while the Times Higher Education speculate that under-performance may trigger student-number controls. So, the consequences for not engaging the full workforce in teaching excellence are existential threats to many institutions, particularly those who may struggle to retain Silver. However, the opportunities for those institutions that strategise in this regard lead to quality and value. As noted in the introduction to this blog, there are thought to be up to 50,000 technicians working in UK HE (a figure that will be clearer post-Staff Record review), recognising, developing and evidencing their contribution to NSS, TEF and REF should be a high priority for university leaders.
If your institution would benefit from practical help to understand, evidence and develop technician pedagogies in support of teaching excellence, please get in touch, I’ll be very happy to talk with you.
