Why international students have been “TEF-ed out”?

Abstract

The article offers a critical review of the developments in the proposals for the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in the UK, focusing particularly on international students. The analysis points to the absence of views and discussions regarding the group of international learners, which warrants the claim that international students have been “TEF-ed out”. The article provides the answer why. The article draws on the coverage of the TEF in the Times Higher Education and relevant literature on international students. It is concluded that the TEF reveals signs of “othering” of international students, pointing to the fundamental problem with the TEF as a national tool that legitimises subordination of this group in recent moves and changes to higher education. The article also discusses Internationalisation at Home (IAH) as a possible metric that could create more equal conditions for cultural plurality in the TEF.

Key words:

• TEF
• international students
• internationalisation at home
• higher education othering

Notes

1. Times Higher Education is a weekly professional magazine that is a leading publication in the UK focused on issues in higher education.

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