Regulating student awards

Higher education providers registered with the Office for Students must ensure that the degrees they award are credible and appropriately reflect the knowledge and skills of students.

Our ongoing condition of registration B4 (Assessment and awards) requires a provider to make sure that awards are credible when granted and when compared with previous awards. A degree must hold its value over time.

This is so that students, employers and the public can be confident that classes of degree awarded appropriately reflect students’ knowledge and skills.

Monitoring the award of degrees

We monitor and analyse changes in the proportion of first and upper second class degrees awarded over time, using data we receive from universities and colleges.

Where these changes cannot be accounted for – for example, by factors like changes in the student population – we describe these changes as ‘unexplained’ in our analysis.

Our latest report (November 2025) found that the proportion of students awarded first-class and upper second class degrees has reduced in recent years, although levels remain above those awarded in 2010-11.