Operational measures

Registering providers is an important part of the OfS's role. It allows new, innovative, high quality providers to gain access to the benefits of registration and improves diversity of choice for students.

It is important that we make decisions about registration applications in good time, so that new providers that meet our initial conditions of registration can enter the regulated sector and recruit students. It is also important that our assessment process is rigorous to ensure that only providers able to submit high quality applications and meet our requirements are registered.

We began accepting applications for registration in April 2018. All providers from the previous regulatory regime were required to apply if they wished to access the benefits of registration.

OM 3 includes data on registration applications received between 1 April 2018 and 31 December 2024.

OM 3 shows that, in the second quarter of 2018, we received 363 applications, with 97 further applications coming before the end of 2018. We resolved many of these over the following year.

Since this initial registration period, we have received and resolved lower numbers of registration applications. From March to December 2020, we suspended receiving or assessing most registration applications due to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the end of December 2024, we held 42 unresolved registration applications. These applications will be at various stages in the assessment process. In some cases, delays are caused by providers submitting incomplete applications or taking time to respond to our follow-up requests for information. Read more about the registration process and factors which affect the assessment timescales.

Note that a pause on accepting applications to register with the OfS was put into operation from December 2024 and the consequences of this are partly reflected in this data. These temporary changes will end in August 2025, and the OfS will reopen for new applications and resume paused assessments on a staggered basis. Read more about the temporary changes to registration and other applications.

OM 3 is based on data from our internal systems about the individual registration applications we receive and resolve.

A registration application is considered resolved when:

• a provider is registered
• we make a final decision to refuse a registration application
• we agree that an application can be withdrawn by the provider; or
• we otherwise decide not to progress an application.

The OM 3 data shown here is different to that previously published. This is a result of improvements to the way in which we record and process internal data about our regulatory activity. These changes have not affected the performance of our regulatory activity and are limited to data from our internal systems. The data used for our key performance measures is unaffected.

Download OM 3 data as an Excel file.