Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether Ofsted’s initial teacher education inspection framework takes account of the effectiveness of a provider’s academic appointment processes and research integrity arrangements; and if not, whether they will ask Ofsted to consider doing so.

Ofsted’s initial teacher education inspection framework provides an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of initial teacher education providers. Inspections consider the quality of education and training, leadership, governance and compliance with the department’s initial teacher training criteria.

The framework does not specifically assess a provider’s processes for appointing academic staff or its research integrity arrangements and there are no plans to change this. Universities are autonomous institutions and are responsible for their own staffing and research governance arrangements, subject to the relevant legal and regulatory requirements.