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Register hereThe TQEF Toolkit provides resources for sector colleagues who require access to the key TQEF diagrams, speaking notes for internal presentations, the TQEF logo and branding guidelines.
Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF) logo was created to interact with different brandings, backgrounds, colours and images. This allows for a standardised approach while still allowing autonomy to each partner. These guidelines provide guidance on the correct use of the TQEF logo.
Download logo [PNG]
Exclusion Zone: The exclusion zone is a consistently spaced area around the logo. For the Stamp version of the logo, the exclusion zone is 1X. In which the value of X is the diameter of the darkest circle at the centre of the logo.
Minimum Width: To ensure accessibility and readability, the width should be no smaller than 60px.
Placement: The Stamp version of the TQEF logo was designed to be applied on different backgrounds, colours and images. To maintain a consistent look and feel on different institutions’ branding, we recommend the logo to be applied on the top left corner of the cover of any TQEF publication.
The recommended size of the Stamp version for cover applications is 78x78px. The distance to the top and left margins should be of X in which the value of X is the diameter of the darkest circle at the centre of the logo.
Download logo [PNG]
Exclusion Zone: The exclusion zone is a consistently spaced area around the logo. For the Long version of the logo, the exclusion zone is 2X. In which the value of X is the diameter of the darkest circle at the centre of the logo.
Minimum Width: To ensure accessibility and readability, the width should be no smaller than 100px.
Placement: The Long version of the TQEF logo was designed to be applied in combination with other institutions’ logos on light backgrounds.
Download logo [PNG]
Exclusion Zone: The exclusion zone is a consistently spaced area around the logo. For the Acronym version of the logo, the exclusion zone is 2X. In which the value of X is the diameter of the darkest circle at the centre of the logo.
Minimum Width: To ensure accessibility and readability, the width should be no smaller than 40px.
Placement: The Acronym version of the TQEF logo was designed to be applied on light background and small areas. The logo should only be used when the full name Scottish Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework appears in a different placement on the page (eg the title of a document).
Alternative formats of our logo are available by contacting us at communications@sfc.ac.uk.
The briefing below can also be viewed and downloaded as a PDF TQEF Descriptive Briefing
The TQEF is Scotland’s national framework. It assures academic standards and the quality of the student experience, and it ensures accountability for public investment in learning and teaching in our colleges and universities. The TQEF was launched in July 2024 and will operate its first cycle over a seven-year period until 2031.
The TQEF’s vision is for a more coherent and streamlined tertiary education system from the student perspective that delivers the best learning experience for students. The TQEF’s principles are the foundation on which quality assurance and enhancement are based and are designed to put students at the heart of the TQEF in Scotland. They are:
TQEF is made up of five interconnected “delivery mechanisms”, which together provide assurance on the quality of provision and support institutional and sector wide enhancement.
Colleges and universities must submit an annual self-reflection and planning document called the SEAP. The SEAP supports institutions to identify good practice and areas for development, setting out an action plan for enhancement. The SEAP also forms part of an institution’s evidence base for the TQER; supporting review teams to enhance their understanding of institutions strengths, areas for enhancement and enhancement plans.
The review of the SEAP feeds directly into the SFC’s institutional AQE engagement and together with the TQER they are used to assure the quality of learning and teaching provision in Scotland’s colleges and universities.
The TQEF delivery partners (QAA, CDN, sparqs and Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework Partnership) have been commissioned by SFC to contribute to and deliver key aspects of the TQEF, and you can find out more in the SFC Guidance on Quality for Colleges and Universities
As students are at the heart of the TQEF, they play a vital role in meeting the TQEF’s vision and its activities. This includes:
To support students across colleges and universities, sparqs updated their Student Learning Experience model and developed Scotland’s Ambition for Student Partnership, and are providing direct support to students, Students’ Associations and colleges and universities.
Across the development and delivery of the TQEF, sector engagement has been critical. The Tertiary Quality Steering Group (TQSG), has helped shape and guide the co-creation of the TQEF, and will continue to help steer its ongoing development.
Along with TQSG, SFC engages with other key groups such as The Quality Forum, CDN Quality Steering Group, and Universities Scotland Learning and Teaching Committee amongst others.
Scotland is introducing a new approach to quality assurance and enhancement, Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework, or ‘TQEF’ will seek to answer the question ‘is the learning provision delivered by Scotland’s colleges and universities of high-quality and is it improving?
The TQEF is founded on a set of shared Principles that have been used to shape its development, and will underpin and permeate every aspect of the new Framework, these are:
At the very heart of the shared principles sits our ambition to deliver better outcomes for our students.
The principles were initially developed over AY 2021-22 as SFC started engaging with the sector and stakeholders to explore options for how the common approach to quality assurance and enhancement could be developed and what the key principles underpinning such an approach might be. They were further refined during the co-creation workshops in AY 2022-23.
The Principles are core to the institutional Self Evaluation and Action Plan (SEAP), with institutions expected to reflect on their performance in the first four headline principles (Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment, Supporting student success, Enhancement and quality culture and Student engagement and partnership), while “Externality” and “Data and Evidence” are underpinning and are expected to be threaded throughout the narrative.
The Tertiary Quality Enhancement Review also uses the principles as the basis for evaluation within the new review process.
The TQEF has five interconnected delivery mechanisms that collectively give assurance on the quality of provision delivered by our colleges and universities, and support sector wide enhancement, these include:
Though the principles and delivery mechanism in themselves will support the tertiary educations sector enhance its delivery of further, higher and work-based learning, it needs to be assessed effectively to evaluate progress and identify areas of good practice, as well as areas for development.
The TQEF will use a range of outputs to assess progress, including:
This is the framework in its entirety, presenting the component parts in a single diagram.
The framework’s principles, delivery mechanisms and outputs can be applied to the different contexts of our colleges and universities to give assurance on academic standards, the quality of the student experience, and ensure accountability for public investment in learning and teaching – supporting SFC’s ambition to make Scotland an outstanding place to learn and educate now and in the future.
You can find out more about the development and implementation of the TQEF on the dedicated SFC project webpages by using the QR code on screen or going to https://www.sfc.ac.uk/tqef.
SFC Strategic Plan 2022-27
Building a connected, agile, sustainable tertiary education and research system for Scotland.