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The University of Southampton
Events

What's wrong with our Universities, and will the Teaching Excellence Framework put it right? Event

Dorothy Bishop
Time:
18:00 - 19:00
Date:
1 February 2017
Venue:
Room 1067, Building 58, Highfield Campus

For more information regarding this event, please email events@southampton.ac.uk .

Event details

The University was delighted to welcome the next speaker in its Distinguished Lecture series; Dorothy Bishop.

Video of the event

Lecture slides

You can also download the set of slides used in the presentation.

Dorothy Bishop, FBA, FMedSci, FRS is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, where she heads a programme of research into children's communication impairments. She is a supernumerary fellow of St John's College Oxford. Her main research interests are in the nature and causes of developmental language impairments, with a particular focus on psycholinguistics, neurobiology and genetics. Beyond psychology, she is active in the field of open science and research reproducibility, and is a member of the executive committee of the Council for Defence of British Universities. As well as publishing in conventional academic outlets, she writes a popular blog with personal reactions to scientific and academic matters (Bishopblog) and tweets as @deevybee

In 2016, the government introduced the Higher Education and Research Bill 2016-17, which is currently being debated in the House of Lords and has particular importance for universities in England. The Bill contains a complex mix of proposals that involve structural changes in the relationship between government and universities, new criteria for what constitutes a university, and the placement of teaching and research in different Departments of State. A major focus of the Green Paper introducing the Bill was the need for a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) to parallel the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

The TEF does not require new legislation and, even though the Bill is now facing some opposition in the Lords, the TEF is now being implemented without any parliamentary scrutiny. In this talk Dorothy Bishop evaluated:

  • The arguments made in the Green Paper in favour of introducing a TEF
  • The formal responses to TEF proposals in the Green Paper
  • Specific criticism of the statistical basis of the proposed TEF
  • Cost-benefit analysis of the TEF

Speaker information

Dorothy Bishop,University of Oxford,Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology, Department of Experimental Psychology

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