The two Russell Group universities involved in the government’s flagship National Institute of Teaching have both failed to pass the first round of Department for Education accreditation.
The University of Birmingham and Newcastle University were last week named as “specialist partners” of the new National Institute of Teaching, which aims to boost teacher recruitment and training.
Specialist partners will not just be involved in initial teacher training (ITT) but also research, National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) and other forms of development.
But it has emerged that neither Newcastle nor Birmingham passed the first round of the DfE’s reaccreditation scheme, brought in as part of a shake-up of the ITT sector.
Under the shake-up, the DfE has required all providers to apply to be reaccredited in order to continue providing training from September 2024.
Earlier this month, the DfE revealed that only 80 providers (one-third of those that applied in the first round) had received accreditation.
The deadline for the second round is now less than a month away.
A spokesperson for Newcastle University told Tes that its initial teacher education (ITE) provision is “of the highest quality” and it is “disappointed to have been unsuccessful in the first round”.
The university is currently responding to the feedback and preparing a revised submission.
Institute of Teaching partners fall at first accreditation hurdle
“Alongside our existing provision, and as a specialist partner of the National Institute of Teaching, we look forward to continuing to shape the future of teacher education and teacher development,” the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Colin Diamond, professor of educational leadership at the University of Birmingham, confirmed that the university had not been successful in round one and said that “whilst this is frustrating”, it is “confident of securing accreditation in the next round”.
He said that working with the National Institute of Teaching will allow the university to ”provide expert support to its education strategy, as well as its leadership development programmes and curriculum development”.
In an interview with Tes today, NIoT boss Melanie Renowden said she was “confident” about the providers being successful in round two and that she had “confidence in the quality of what they’re doing”.
But Tanya Ovenden-Hope, provost and professor of education at Plymouth Marjon University and Marjon University Cornwall, told Tes it was “quite shocking that the NIoT’s Higher Education Institution (HEI) partners have not been successful in phase one of the DfE’s new accreditation process to provide ITT”.
She added: “Both universities are established, and Ofsted-recognised, high-quality ITT providers. There is clearly dissonance in the process for reaccreditation.”
James Noble-Rogers, executive director of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, told Tes that the two universities were both “highly regarded and highly thought of universities”.
“One would hope the process would be such as to allow them to get through next time,” he added.
At the launch of the National Institute of Teaching, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said “excellent teachers need excellent training”, which is why the “National Institute of Teaching is going to be so important”.
“The institute is going to revolutionise the way teachers and school leaders receive training in this country, with cutting-edge research alongside training delivered by national experts,” he added.
A spokesperson for the National Institute of Teaching said: “We are very confident in the quality of all our partners, including those in HE. Accreditation is an ongoing process and we believe both our university partners will receive accreditation in round two, along with many others who were not successful in the first round.”
