Gaming the TEF? Suspending entry for Music and Sound Technology at University of Portsmouth

Is this the latest technique of gaming the NSS and the TEF?

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On 29 December 2018, we received an anonymous tip-off regarding University of Portsmouth.

At the University of Portsmouth, a small team teaches the BSc (Hons) degree in Music and Sound Technology. It’s a successful, popular degree, recruiting around 50 new students per year.

Early in December, members of the School of Creative Technology running this particular degree were informed that university senior management would be suspending intake to the degree for 2019–2020 — just for one year.

Why? Music and Sound Technology is predicted to receive a ‘Bronze’ in the TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework), which could jeopardise the precious ‘TEF Gold’ currently held by the University of Portsmouth. If a degree programme doesn’t have all three years of students, then it’s excluded from the upcoming NSS (National Student Survey)! So this is a way to ‘game’ the TEF by manipulating the NSS!

Anecdotal reports on the ground suggest that there are now serious issues with maintaining morale among the remaining students and staff. Applicants also turned up at Open Days at the University of Portsmouth, only to be sent away because entry for Music and Sound Technology was suspended.

But it gets better: the reason that Music and Sound Technology is vulnerable is because it’s the only degree the University of Portsmouth teaches in its category — ‘Material Technology’. Material Technology has usually involved programmes teaching the science of metals, plastics, minerals, and so forth. One suspects someone’s mouse slipped when Music and Sound Technology was entered into that category — and university senior management didn’t bother to check…