Securing student success: Regulatory framework for higher education in England

  This condition applies to the courses that the provider plans to provide when it is registered.

  The reference to higher education provided “in any manner or form” includes any higher education course (whether or not that course is recognised for OfS funding purposes, or any other purpose), at any level, and with any volume of learning. This means, for example, that postgraduate research courses, the study of modules or courses leading to microcredentials, and apprenticeships are included within the scope of this condition. It also includes courses provided face-to-face, by distance learning, or a combination of delivery approaches.

  This condition applies to any higher education provided “by, or on behalf of, a provider”. This includes higher education provided to all of the students who are registered with a registered provider, taught by a registered provider or studying for an award of a registered provider (or where these services are provided on a registered provider’s behalf). This includes UK-based and non-UK-based students, and courses delivered through partnership arrangements both within the UK and internationally.

  The reference to “including, but not limited to, circumstances where a provider would be responsible only for granting awards for students registered with another provider” means that a provider is required to comply with the provisions of this condition where it would be the awarding body for a course, whether or not that provider would have any other role in the design or delivery of that course.

  Where a provider would not be the awarding body for a course, this condition applies to a course the provider itself would deliver, or which would be delivered on its behalf, regardless of the identity of the awarding body, whether or not that awarding body is registered with the OfS, or the nature of any partnership agreement. For the avoidance of doubt, this means for example, that a provider that would deliver, or allow another provider to deliver, courses leading to a qualification awarded by Pearson is responsible for compliance with this condition in relation to those courses. Similarly, a provider that would deliver, or allow another provider to deliver, courses leading to a qualification awarded by another higher education provider, whether that awarding provider is located in England or elsewhere, is responsible for compliance with this condition in relation to those courses.

  In practice, these provisions may result in more than one registered provider being responsible for compliance with this condition in relation to the same course.

  This requirement is designed to assess a provider’s ability to comply with ongoing condition B5, if it is registered. In assessing the “standards to be set and/or applied” under this requirement, the OfS will consider whether it is satisfied that: (a) the standards to be set for a provider’s courses appropriately reflect sector-recognised standards; and (b) the awards to be granted for those courses will only be granted to students with knowledge and skills which also appropriately reflect sector-recognised standards. This is the case whether or not a provider is the awarding body for a course.

  Where a provider seeking registration has previously delivered, or is currently delivering, higher education courses, the OfS may have regard to evidence relating to the standards set for those courses, and achieved by students receiving those awards in practice, in determining whether initial condition B8 is satisfied.

  Where a registered provider is seeking registration in a different category of registration, this requires the OfS to deregister the provider and make a new registration decision by deciding whether each of the initial conditions is satisfied. In these circumstances, the OfS’s assessment of this condition will relate to the courses the provider plans to provide from the date of the new registration.

  The OfS will assess compliance with this initial condition for all providers seeking registration. It will commission the designated quality body to conduct an assessment of standards to provide information to the OfS to inform the OfS’s decision about whether the condition is satisfied. An assessment by the designated quality body will involve the submission of specified information to the designated quality body and may involve a visit to the provider and interviews with relevant staff and students.

  The purpose of a standards assessment is for the designated quality body to scrutinise the courses that the provider will deliver when it is registered, whether or not they are currently delivered, and reach a judgement about whether the standards set in those courses appropriately reflect sector-recognised standards.

  Where a provider has applied to be authorised for New DAPs at the same time as its application for registration, the OfS will commission a New DAPs test from the designated quality body and may ask the designated quality body to include in its advice separate information that would allow the OfS to determine whether initial condition B8 is satisfied.

     Having received relevant information from the designated quality body, the OfS will reach a view about whether the initial condition is satisfied. Where a provider, or another legal entity operating substantially the same higher education business, has previously been registered, a history of non-compliance with ongoing condition B5 is likely to result in a judgement that initial condition B8 is not satisfied.

     Where the OfS considers this initial condition to be satisfied, but that there is an increased risk of a breach of the general ongoing condition for standards (condition B5), or a wider regulatory concern, it may impose one or more specific ongoing conditions of registration and will also consider whether additional monitoring requirements are appropriate, for example, a requirement to report additional matters as reportable events, or to have an additional assessment by the designated quality body.