Higher education leaders said this week that they believe the government is trying to push universities out of teacher training for political reasons because ministers see their education departments as “hotbeds of left-wing intellectualism” and full of “Marxists”.
According to changes announced last summer, all initial teacher training providers in England need to be re-accredited by the Department of Education to continue training teachers from 2024. However, two-thirds of providers, including some leading universities, it was said this month that the first round of the new accreditation process had failed. DfE said last week that only 80 providers, out of 216 believed to have applied, had made the cuts.
Those who are currently in the cold include some of the prestigious Russell Group. The University of Nottingham, a member of the elite group, said it was “very disappointed and confused” that it had failed just two months after Offsted described it as exceptional, with inspectors praising “the exceptional curriculum taught by experts”.
The University of Birmingham, which DfE has chosen as one of its specialized partners for its new school-based National Institute of Teaching, also failed to make the first round of accreditation.
The head of an unsuccessful university, who asked not to be nominated for fear of discouraging candidates, said: “Our staff, who are excellent teachers, are devastated by the failure. It’s hard for them to believe because of our experience. “
DfE said providers could re-apply, but experts say some large universities are so outraged that they may abandon teacher training altogether, exacerbating fears of a shortage of teachers in many subjects. The University of Cambridge is not applying for accreditation due to fears that its curriculum will be compromised.
Mary Boasted, secretary general of the National Education Union, said: “It was a child of [former schools minister] Nick Gibb, who was obsessed with the idea that university teacher training departments were hotbeds of left-wing intellectualism. I told him I didn’t know how to convey my disappointment that he was coming out with this garbage. “
Prof. David Spendlow, an associate professor at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester and former head of primary teacher education, said: “As Secretary of Education Michael Gove talks about the fight against Blob [the education establishment]. He and Nick Gibb had the idea that all universities and teacher training departments were Marxists. Their influence has not disappeared. “
The University of Nottingham was the first university to publicly confirm that it had failed the first round of the new accreditation process. Photo: Mike Egerton / PA Media
Manchester has been accredited, but Prof. Spendlow believes the new process “damages the very foundation” of university teacher training and is now “harder to stay than to leave”.
“People who have been doing this for a long time are told that they are not fit for the purpose, despite all the positive tests they have gone through. It’s a farce, “he said.
Professor David Green, vice-chancellor of the University of Worcester, who has a strong focus on teacher education, said: “Gibb had a clear agenda to remove universities from teacher education. Some officials may have remained true to his outdated view. “
He said: “This new DfE system risks destroying many existing high-quality teacher training. It would be a disaster for children who will recover from the educational devastation caused by the pandemic for years. “
Prof. Spendlav said that no university should celebrate its success in the first round, arguing that the next stage of the accreditation process, which focuses on the curriculum, means a loss of autonomy over what is taught. “This includes increased control over the content of the courses and a review of the study materials, which is extremely strange,” he said. “DfE hopes that people will be so desperate to pass that they will just turn around and accept it.”
This idea worries many universities. Cambridge, which had more than 250 candidates for teachers this year and is considered outstanding by Ofsted, said his decision not to apply was due to concerns about the government’s “strictly prescribed curriculum” and its mentoring model, both they said “don’t look like what we do”.
Busted said: “Universities have a right to fear that the DfE is trying to control their curriculum. That’s what’s happening. “
Teachers ‘unions have been warning for months that forcing providers to skip new bureaucratic hoops risks damaging teachers’ supply. Teacher training applications fell 24% from last year after a brief Covid boom, with recruitment falling below pre-pandemic levels.
A report from the National Foundation for Educational Research in March said a wide range of secondary subjects would not meet the 2022 teacher recruitment targets. These include a shortage of subjects such as physics, mathematics, chemistry and computer science, but also who usually do well in English, biology and geography.
Professor Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield Hallam, whose initial teacher training passed the first round of accreditation, said: “I think this is really meant to drive some suppliers out of the market. But the risk posed by the government is the expulsion of some of the people who must seek to detain. “
He said universities were committed to teacher training, “but not at any cost.” “Big organizations always have a choice,” he said. “I really do not understand why the government chooses this battle. Evidence from Ofsted’s inspections shows that the sector is in pretty good shape. That doesn’t make any sense to me. “
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Nottingham was the first university to publicly confirm that it had not passed the first round of accreditation. The news was met with anger in the sector.
Green described the decision as “just ridiculous”, which came so soon after Offsted described all aspects of Nottingham’s teacher education as exceptional.
John Dexter, who was director of education at Nottingham City Council until February and spent more than 30 years teaching and managing the city’s schools, tweeted that he was “confused, disappointed and disappointed” by the result.
He said: “This is extraordinary. Getting exclusive from Ofsted’s ITT [initial teacher training] it’s quite impressive. ” He said the Nottingham course was good to help students understand the environment in which they will teach. “I really don’t understand why DfE is doing this.”
The government announced on Thursday, after a year-long dispute over a contract believed to cost hundreds of thousands, that its National Institute of Teaching will open in September 2023, led by a consortium of four school trusts called the School Led Development Trust.
DfE asked for comment.
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