Temporary changes to registration and other applications

The Office for Students (OfS) is temporarily refocusing its resources to support its work in response to the financial challenges affecting higher education providers in England.

This is to ensure students’ interests are protected. This will mean temporary changes to our assessment of applications from providers.

We have provided further information on this below.

What is changing?

We are not accepting new applications from providers seeking to register with us, gain degree awarding powers, or gain university title. Applications that have already been submitted and that are at an early stage will be paused. We expect these changes to be in place until August 2025.

• Registration. No new registration applications will be accepted and all registration cases in the early stages of assessment will be paused.
• Degree awarding powers. No new applications for degree awarding powers will be accepted, and applications that have been received but where assessment has not yet started will be paused.
• University title. No new applications for university title, or for a change in a provider’s name where it already holds university title or university college title, will be accepted. Those already submitted will be completed.

If an application is at an advanced stage of assessment, or a provider has an open application for university title, we will continue work on these applications as usual. All other work will continue.

Why are you making this change?

Our recent financial analysis, published in November, indicates more providers are at increasing financial risk. We do not expect a significant number of providers to fail in the short term. But the number facing significant challenges in the next two or three years is increasing.

We need to act now to do all we can to support the financial resilience of the sector. This is our top priority. It means we are refocusing existing OfS resources onto our financial sustainability work on a temporary basis.

Our priority at this time must be applying our finite resources to managing risks for the students already in the system, over the benefits that new providers, or those seeking the ability to award qualifications, will bring.

If we didn’t make these changes now, there is a real risk we would not be able to effectively discharge our duty to monitor financial sustainability and ensure that students’ interests are protected.

Why registration, degree awarding power and university title?

The decision to pause work on applications is driven by the interests of students, specifically the need to prioritise managing risks for students already in the system, over increasing the numbers of new providers entering the sector or extending the number with degree awarding powers.

In a more stable environment, increasing the diversity of the sector and registering new and innovative providers is to be welcomed. But we know from our most recent financial sustainability update that it is medium and smaller providers, or specialist providers, that are more likely to be affected by financial challenges in the years ahead. These are the types of providers we see seeking registration and degree awarding powers at present.

While we are currently meeting our published timelines for resolving registration applications, there is a risk that we won’t be able to do so as the scale of our financial work increases. We want to be transparent and implement a temporary pause now, rather than starting cases and having to stop them to take up urgent work, causing uncertainty in what we know can feel like a lengthy process for providers. Our decision to pause these processes is not a reflection on the applications from the institutions affected by these temporary changes.

What will the impact be?

We recognise this will have a detrimental impact on a small number of providers with an application that is being paused, or for those providers that were planning to apply during this period.

This will enable us to increase our monitoring financial sustainability or providers which will increase protection of students’ interests, whether we are working with a higher education provider to ensure it has a sustainable future or working to best support students in the event that a provider closes or discontinues courses. Refocusing our resources in this way will put us in the best possible position to protect students’ interests at a challenging time.

When will applications reopen?

We expect to restart this work in August 2025, although the changes will remain under review until then. When we restart our assessment work, we will need to stagger recommencing cases. We will keep providers updated throughout this period.

What happens next?

We’ve been considering how we can improve the registration process to facilitate high quality applications. We’ll set out our proposals for this early in 2025. We’ll also look for ways to improve and streamline the degree awarding powers application process.

How will I know if my application is affected?

We have already contacted all providers that were already in the application process or had expressed an interest in applying.

How can I get further information?

If you would like further information about your application, or if you have a concern about our decision to stop accepting new applications, you can contact [email protected].

Our decision in relation to new registration applications has been made under the provisions of section 3(5) of HERA. See the legal notice of temporary changes to registration.