QUALITY teaching will only come from greater job security and decent working conditions, lecturers’ union UCU told MPs yesterday.

The union said that proposed measures to improve teaching would fail unless more was done to tackle these problems.

Using metrics such as graduate earnings and drop-out rates as “blunt instruments” to measure standards of teaching would “only reinforce inequalities,” it added in evidence to the business, innovation and skills select committee.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said after the meeting: “Our high standards are one of the reasons so many overseas students continue to choose to study here.”

Ms Hunt also criticised the increase in casual temporary workers.

She added: “Quality teaching is underpinned by the creation of a decent working environment and conditions for teachers themselves.

“If politicians are serious about the quality of teaching they must act to tackle the widespread job insecurity and endemic casualisation that still blights the university sector.”