 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1 January 2018 |
| Preceding agencies | |
| Type | Non-departmental public body |
| Jurisdiction | England |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent department | Department for Education |
| Website | www |
The Office for Students (OfS) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Education of the United Kingdom Government. It acts as the regulator and competition authority for the higher education sector in England. [1]
The regulator was established by the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, coming into existence on 1 January 2018. [2] It merged the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Office for Fair Access, and formally inherited their responsibilities, while 'working in the interests of students and prospective students' [3] and having 'a wider remit ... taking charge of the granting of degree awarding powers and university title.' [4] The OfS inherited HEFCE's funding responsibilities (aside from those for research which passed to United Kingdom Research and Innovation), and OFFA's responsibility for promoting fair access to higher education.
The OfS website lists its main areas of work as:
It notes that it is not responsible for tuition fees, students loans or other aspects of individual student funding, and that it cannot usually get involved in individual complaints about universities and colleges. [5]
The OfS's other functions include the administration of the Teaching Excellence Framework [6] and the Register of higher education providers. [7] It is responsible both for administering the prevent duty and for ensuring that universities allow freedom of speech for controversial guest speakers. [8]
Registered higher education providers must nominate an accountable officer to the OfS. This is normally the chief executive of the provider, but may be the senior officer responsible for higher education in a provider that also carries out other activities not related to higher education. The accountable officer reports on the provider's behalf to the OfS, the designated data body and the designated quality body. They are personally responsible for funding received from the OfS and Research England and for the loans received from the Student Loans Company on behalf of the provider's students for payment of tuition fees. They can be required to appear before the Public Accounts Committee alongside the head of the OfS to answer questions about the registration and funding of the provider. [9]
The OfS is governed by a board consisting of the chair, the Chief Executive, the Director for Fair Access and Participation, and at least seven and not more than twelve other members. All members of the board are appointed by the Secretary of State for Education. [10] The current OfS chair (working two days a week) [11] is Lord Wharton, and the chief executive is Susan Lapworth. [12]
The board is advised by a Student Panel, which exists to help the OfS to understand students' views and perspectives. [13]
The appointment of Toby Young to the board, announced on 1 January 2018, generated controversy over his suitability for the post. [14] As at 8 January 2018, over 200,000 people had signed an online petition protesting his appointment. In response to questioning the Prime Minister declared herself comfortable with his appointment, while the Universities minister defended him in the House of Commons. After criticism from leading Tory MPs, Young resigned on that day, claiming he had been turned into a caricature. [15] [16]
In February 2021, James Wharton, Baron Wharton of Yarm, a Conservative peer, was made the chair and his appointment was endorsed by the Education Select Committee. Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green questioned his experience and suitability for the role, calling his appointment "cronyism". [11] Although it is customary for chairs of independent bodies to resign political affiliations during their period of office, Wharton chose not to resign from the Conservative whip. [17]
In March 2023, the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee opened an inquiry into the work of the OfS. The purpose of the inquiry is to scrutinise its performance, its independence from and relationship with the Government, and whether it has the necessary expertise and resources to carry out its functions. The inquiry is also examining the OfS’ work in relation to the financial sustainability of the higher education sector, and how the associated risks are managed. [18]
When giving oral evidence to the inquiry, former Student Panel members told the Committee that they felt they were threatened with a reassessment of the future of the panel if they were to continue to express views on inclusive curricula that did not conform to those of OfS staff. They also reported a lack of impact on OfS policy, unpublished minutes of meetings, and that the student voice as expressed by panel members was "actively suppressed" when trying to counter aims and policies that appeared to be political in nature. In their role as a member of the OfS board, the former chair of the student panel reported that they experienced "small amounts of hostility" when expressing student views. [19] [20]
Education in England is overseen by the Department for Education. Local government authorities are responsible for implementing policy for public education and state-funded schools at a local level. State-funded schools may be selective grammar schools or non-selective comprehensive schools. All state schools are subject to assessment and inspection by the government department Ofsted. England also has private schools and home education; legally, parents may choose to educate their children by any suitable means.
The Russell Group is a self-selected association of twenty-four public research universities in the United Kingdom. The group is headquartered in Cambridge and was established in 1994 to represent its members' interests, principally to government and Parliament. It was incorporated in 2007. Its members are often perceived as being the UK's best universities, but this has been disputed.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in England since 1992. It ceased to exist as of 1 April 2018, when its duties were divided between the newly created Office for Students and Research England.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education is the United Kingdom higher education sector's independent expert quality body. It has a remit to maintain and enhance the quality of teaching and learning in tertiary education in the United Kingdom and beyond. It conducts quality assessment reviews, develops reference points and guidance for providers, and conducts or commissions research on relevant issues.
Toby Daniel Moorsom Young is a British social commentator. He is the founder and director of the Free Speech Union, an associate editor of The Spectator, and a former associate editor at Quillette.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is the regulator for nursing and midwifery professions in the UK. The NMC maintains a register of all nurses, midwives and specialist community public health nurses and nursing associates eligible to practise within the UK. It sets and reviews standards for their education, training, conduct and performance. The NMC also investigates allegations of impaired fitness to practise.
Sir Richard Hughes Trainor,, is an academic administrator and historian who served as the Principal of King's College London from 2004 to 2014. He was previously the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich from 2000 to 2004. He is currently Rector (head) of Exeter College, Oxford.
The Scottish Funding Council, formally the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council, is the non-departmental public body charged with funding Scotland's further and higher education institutions, including its 26 colleges and 19 universities.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life(CSPL) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government, established by John Major in 1994 to advise the Prime Minister on ethical standards of public life. It promotes a code of conduct called the Seven Principles of Public Life, also known as the Nolan principles after the first chairman of the committee, Lord Nolan.
The Health and Social Care Select Committee is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administration and expenditure of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and its associated agencies and public bodies. The Clerks of the Committee are Previn Desai and Joanna Dodd.
University Alliance (UA) is an association of British universities formed in 2006 as the Alliance of Non-Aligned Universities, adopting its current name in 2007.
Tertiary education in Australia is formal education beyond high school in Australia, consisting of both government and private institutions and divided into two sectors; Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training (VET) provided by government-owned TAFEs & private Registered Training Organisations (RTO). Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), the Australian national education policy, classifies tertiary qualification into 10 levels: level 1 to 4 vocational certificates ; level 5 & 6 undergraduate diploma and advanced diploma; level 6 associate degree; level 7 bachelor degree, level 8 bachelor honours degree & graduate certificates and graduate diplomas; level 9 for master's degree; and level 10 PhD. Most universities are government owned and mostly self-regulated. For other institutes there are two national regulators for tertiary education for registration, recognition and quality assurance of both the "provider institutes" as well as the "individual courses" provided by the providers. Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) regulates institutes which provide education from level 5 or above. Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) regulates institutes which provide education from level 1 to level 6.
The Legal Services Board is an independent body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, created through the Legal Services Act of 2007.
Joseph Edmund Johnson, Baron Johnson of Marylebone, is a British politician and peer who was Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation from 2015 to 2018, and from July to September 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Orpington from 2010 to 2019. He currently sits in the House of Lords. His older brother, Boris Johnson, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 2019 and 2022.
James Stephen Wharton, Baron Wharton of Yarm is a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for his home constituency of Stockton South from the 2010 general election, until losing his seat in the 2017 general election. Wharton was appointed Minister for the Northern Powerhouse after his re-election in 2015 and moved to a ministerial position in the Department for International Development by Theresa May in 2016. In September 2020, he took his seat as a member of the House of Lords, taking the title Baron Wharton of Yarm.
Global University Systems B.V. (GUS) is a for-profit private limited company registered in the Netherlands. As a corporate group, it owns and operates several private for-profit colleges and universities in the UK, Canada, Israel and Europe, as well as other brands and companies in the education sector, such as the e-learning provider InterActive. GUS was founded in its present form and name in 2013 by Aaron Etingen, who serves as chairman, CEO and majority stockholder.
The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) is a government assessment of the quality of undergraduate teaching in universities and other higher education providers in England, which may be used from 2020 to determine whether state-funded providers are permitted to raise tuition fees. Higher education providers from elsewhere in the United Kingdom are allowed to opt-in, but the rating has no impact on their funding. The TEF rates universities as Gold, Silver or Bronze, in order of quality of teaching. The first results were published in June 2017. This was considered a "trial year" and is to be followed by a "lessons learned exercise" that will feed into the 2018 TEF and longer-term plans for subject-level ratings.
The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 was enacted into law in the United Kingdom by the Houses of Parliament on 27 April 2017. It is intended to create a new regulatory framework for higher education, increase competition and student choice, ensure students receive value for money, and strengthen the research sector.
From 2018 to 2023, the UK university sector faced an industrial dispute between staff represented by the University and College Union (UCU) and their employers represented by Universities UK (UUK). The dispute was initially over proposed changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a pension scheme. The changes would have seen a significant drop in worker compensation, and in response the sector experienced industrial action on a scale not before seen. Pay equality, workload, casualisation, and pay levels were added to the dispute in 2019. Action was curtailed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, but resumed in 2021. By March 2023 a resolution had been reached on the USS, which returned to 2017 terms in a victory for the UCU. The UCU was however not successful on The Four Fights, as a November 2023 ballot for extending action failed on turnout. Many universities faced mass redundancies in 2024 amid declining funding.
Research England is a part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) that oversees the functions of UKRI in relation to university research and knowledge transfer in England. This includes:
The OfS is a non-Departmental public body of the Department, established by the Act to fulfil a role as the main regulator of higher education in England.
