The University of Bedfordshire has taken part in a national pilot scheme with education watchdogs to change the way teacher training providers are inspected.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) has changed the inspection process to focus much more on self-evaluation. The new framework has been used in schools and the University was picked to take part in a pilot scheme to test the new approach in a teacher training institution across all provisions including primary, secondary, graduate teacher programmes and post compulsory education.

The report based on this new method of inspection at the University has been published and Ofsted is now taking this framework forward as a way to evaluate institutions.

Paul Davies, Head of the University’s School of Education, said: “We were pleased to be picked as the only university to take part in the Ofsted pilot. As Bedfordshire is one of the largest providers of teacher training in the country, we could suitably demonstrate how self-evaluation can work.

“All institutions should be going through a cycle of self-evaluation every year to see how they can improve provision. This new method of inspection fits in very well with improvement planning and is open to the scrutiny of inspectors. It is also a chance for institutions to gather evidence throughout the three years between inspections, rather than everything hinging on the week the inspectors visit.”

In the pilot inspection report, Ofsted considered the University’s judgments to be accurate and found there is strong leadership and direction, which has resulted a tightly structured strategic plan with clear aims and objectives.

The University was also praised for establishing strong links with partnership schools and colleges, providing rigorous selection procedures for recruiting committed trainees with the majority attaining high standards, which resulted in the University being graded ‘good’ for its overall effectiveness and having a ‘good’ capacity for further improvement.

For further information about the School of Education or studying teacher training at the University of Bedfordshire visit www.beds.ac.uk/departments/schoolofeducation