The ‘i’s have it: how student interest is driving our work

Understanding the student interest

Last year we set out some practical changes to our engagement with students, and agreed upon a three-fold distinction that would define this work:

• student insight – what the OfS needs to know about what students experience before, during and after higher education to properly deliver our regulatory work.
• student input – opportunities for students and their representatives to share what they think the OfS needs to know, and to hear our responses.
• student information – what the OfS thinks students need to know, and what should be freely available to them, before, during and after their involvement in higher education.

In this blog I’ll share an update on what we’ve done so far, and our future plans.

Insight: how student interest was put at the heart of our proposed strategy

Last summer, we commissioned and ran a programme of polling and focus groups to understand what students want and need from their higher education – and the extent to which they are getting it – to inform our next organisational strategy

What we discovered was that students have two categories of expectation: one relating to their experiences of higher education (what studying feels like) and the other relating to what it gets them in the future.

We’ve just published this research, and you can see many of its findings mapped across onto our proposed strategy.

For example, our strategy proposals on quality recognise that students expect – indeed, assume – that higher education will enrich their lives and careers. Crucially, this will look different for different groups of students. As our research emphasised, students have different needs and high quality isn’t ‘one size fits all’.

Furthermore, the importance of fair treatment is reflected in our commitment to ensuring students receive what they are promised, and supporting positive wider experiences that equip students from all backgrounds to succeed.

And while students talked less about the need for institutions to be financially sustainable and well run, financial pressures and wider uncertainty facing institutions will impact the student interest in a range of ways.

Over the coming year we aim to share further student insight based on polls and engagement that we’ve done. This might be on a topic with direct links back into our regulation, or something of regulatory interest to us but where we’re not yet planning direct regulation, or unable to act directly. Our theory of change here is that such information can suggest areas of focus for providers and support informed choice by students.

Input: creating an exchange of information and ideas

To drive how students can input into our work, we launched a new event series to hear from students on the issues that matter as they navigate their higher education pathway, and to talk to them about our work.

150 people attended our first student debrief on 3 December 2024. Questions and feedback were an important element of the event, and we asked students what the key issues that they are currently facing in higher education were (and what they would like to hear from us on). Some of the themes we heard about included challenges around accommodation, mental health, the cost of living, and the impact of financial challenges. We’re using this input to set the agenda for sessions to come, and at our next debrief on 6 March we’ll be turning to the subject of how financial challenges in the sector are impacting the student experience.

Another key part of ‘input’ is reshaping our student panel into a new Student Interest Board. Whilst its purpose will remain to advise (and challenge where necessary) the OfS board, and inform policy, the new board will better represent students’ interests through having a combined membership of both students and those who work closely with and represent them, who can bring their experiences and expertise to the table. I’m looking forward to seeing the unique perspective they’ll bring to our decision making when the new board launches later this spring.

Information: revisiting the tools used by students to inform their decision-making

We’re commissioning a review of student information tools such as Discover Uni, to better understand what students need to make informed decisions about higher education. We are scoping this work and will set out next steps soon.

In summary

Student interest is core to our proposed OfS strategy for 2025-2030: if you haven’t already, please respond to the consultation to let us know if you think we got it right. As detailed in the strategy, the student interest is not fixed, and as students’ priorities change it is important we continue to listen and learn, as we embed their perspectives in our work. We’ll continue to do this as we iterate our approach to insight, input and information.

Students want good and constructive relationships with the institution providing their higher education, and so it’s right that much of the impact of our regulation will flow through providers. However, we also know students want to understand their rights and to know a regulator is acting in their interests. We continue to move forward our student involvement work and use the outputs to protect and enhance their experience of higher education.