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Academic booksellers and publishers need to work harder to raise their profile or risk “slipping away” into insignificance as the government prepares to bring the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) into universities, a report has warned.
The TEF will for the first time assess standards of teaching in UK universities, and will stand alongside the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
Booksellers are upbeat about the opportunities provided to their businesses by TEF, a market research report on Resource Provision in Higher Education has found, and the publishing market will be stimulated by new products because of it. However, both booksellers and academic publishers need to work together to raise levels of awareness about the importance of learning resources to delivering TEF with government and senior educators to stay key to the process, it warned.
The report, from market research firm Gold Leaf, and sponsored by the Booksellers Association, was presented at the BA's Academic Book Trade Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday (18th May).
Ahead of the first TEF results, set for publication after the UK’s General Election, the report’s authors interviewed academics, librarians, booksellers, publishers, students and university administrators to seek to understand the likely implications of the new framework.
The report found “most” booksellers surveyed were “upbeat” about the changes TEF might offer and saw the changes in a positive light. An unnamed senior director of a bookselling chain said: “As a company, we see the TEF as a commercial opportunity….it’s a good way to widen participation, make sure students are up to speed, give them university-funded resources.” Another said: “We see it as a significant opportunity. We’ve got one or two offers we’re pushing to universities ….and the universities want to be seen to be supporting students better.”
For publishers meanwhile, TEF will stimulate the creation of new products to bring to market, such as more localised textbook editions, lead to more quality materials linked to TEF requirements, improve communications with universities and explore new business models.
Alarmingly for retailers, 43% of publishers answering a questionnaire as part of the survey said they intended to sell more directly to institutions in the future as a result of TEF. One said: “I think things will change. We used to do everything through bookshops. Now universities are coming to us and more and more campus bookshops are closing.”
However, despite that, 71% of publishers interviewed for the report said bookshops were an important part of the ecosystem and there was a future for them, with 60% saying this could include helping with the promotion and dissemination of digital products and advising universities on behalf of publishers, but this work by retailers should be paid by publishers, said the report's co-author Linda Bennett of Gold Leaf.
In any case, academic publishers and booksellers need to work together to raise awareness among politicians and senior educators of the important role learning resources will play in delivering TEF, Bennett warned.
TEF currently makes little or no mention of learning resources, even though the need for them is implied if the universities are going to score well on the six key metrics assessed.
“Publishers and booksellers, the Publishers Association and the Booksellers Association need to shout about what the industry does and give it a higher profile with the government and universities,” Bennett told the conference. “We are at a crossroads at the moment. Whether we get a higher profile or gradually slip away is up to you.”
Tim Godfray, c.e.o. at the Booksellers Association, added: “The Higher Education and Research Act 2017, which features the Teaching Excellence Framework, represents the most important change to be introduced to Higher Education in the UK this century. The academic and bookselling communities have always been proud to work closely with universities to service their resource needs. Booksellers, and our publishing colleagues, are looking forward to collaborating with university administrators, academics, librarians and students to help provide the teaching and learning resources, services and metrics, that the TEF will require.”