The teaching excellence framework (TEF) offers a ¡°huge opportunity to improve the quality of teaching¡± in English universities, according to the former Downing Street aide who will lead the country¡¯s new super-regulator for higher education.

Sir Michael Barber, the chair of the new?Office for Students, claimed that the controversial new quality assessment system offered institutions the chance to make their teaching ¡°more inspiring¡±.

Speaking to Times Higher Education ahead of his first speech to vice-chancellors, Sir Michael said that one of the most immediate challenges facing the OfS will be ¡°making sure the teaching excellence framework is successful¡±.

¡°It will not be perfect but it will be fundamentally important,¡± said Sir Michael, who compared the TEF¡¯s development to the various iterations of the research excellence framework since the 1980s.

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¡°I remember the pressures of the REF when I was a university professor [at?Keele University?in the mid-1990s], but progress [in driving research excellence] has been significant,¡± he said.

However, was Sir Michael comfortable with the prospect of universities closing weaker departments ahead of the subject-level TEF assessment due to get under way in 2018-19?

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¡°I can understand that people are very worried and it is a challenge to the?system, but we need to take a student¡¯s perspective ¨C they are paying for high-quality teaching,¡± he said.

¡°When it gets to subject-level [TEF] it will have consequences for subjects and faculties, but that is a management challenge,¡± he said. ¡°Most vice-chancellors know they have some departments that they need to get on to ¨C this will put it more firmly on the agenda,¡± he added.

With universities challenging departments to improve, there will be a wider debate on what comprises good teaching, he added. ¡°It is a huge opportunity to improve the quality of teaching and make it more inspiring,¡± Sir Michael said.

Sir Michael, head of the Prime Minister¡¯s Delivery Unit under Tony Blair, and the outgoing chief education adviser at Pearson, said that he would use a speech at Universities UK on 23 July to lay out his vision for a ¡°modern regulator¡­that will help the sector continue to flourish¡± over the next 25 years.

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Sir Michael ¨C alongside a yet-to-be-appointed chief executive ¨C will head the regulator created by a merger of the Higher Education Funding Council for England with the Office for Fair Access. It will have a wider remit than Hefce, overseeing standards and controlling degree-awarding powers and university titles, while also making loans, grants and other payments to providers ¨C raising concerns in some quarters about the potential conflict of interest arising from a watchdog also holding funding powers.

But Sir Michael said that, while he hoped to facilitate a market in higher education and encourage new providers, he had no interest in ¡°managing¡± the sector.

Hefce ¡°has been, for the most part, a funder, but the OfS will be a regulator that sets rules for the sector to allow it to continue to flourish¡±, said Sir Michael.

¡°That means being risk-based, proportionate, thinking long term as well as short term and [having] really good data,¡± he added.

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Institutional autonomy has been ¡°fundamental to the success of higher education in Britain¡±, according to Sir Michael, who said that he ¡°did not want to lose those qualities that have made [universities] successful¡±.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com