How we are funded

Most of the funding for our work comes from registration fees paid by registered higher education providers, with additional funding from government and other sources.

We charge a fee to the universities and colleges that register with us. These fees cover the costs of regulation. We can also charge assessment fees when a provider requires a quality and standards assessment, and investigation fees to recoup our costs if a provider is subject to an investigation. The Department for Education also gives us some funds to offer fee discounts to some providers

We also receive some funding from the government and other organisations to deliver specific programmes that they have commissioned from us.

We also administer the distribution of grant funding to higher education providers on behalf of the government.