ABSTRACT
Teaching, in particular, is coming under greater scrutiny than ever before as, in the UK at least, the burden of financing HE has shifted from the state to students. As a result, scrutiny – with the intention of ensuring quality and standards – has permeated almost every level of teaching and institutional bureaucracy assessed and evaluated via a number of channels. At the level of the individual, surveillance activities undertaken by colleagues such as peer observations, assessment moderation and external examiners are akin to a 'peer-reviewing' of teaching. In the UK, an external assessment of quality has been formalised via the Teaching Excellence Framework. Introduced in 2016, the TEF intends to define, measure, document and rate teaching within institutions and departments across the country. With the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework in the UK, this is being formalised through the expectation that teaching individuals are members of a respected educational organisation.
