Review of Office for Students’ Annual Financial Return

This is a review undertaken by PwC of the financial information and data the Office for Students (OfS) annually collects from relevant higher education providers to inform its monitoring and analysis of the sector’s financial performance.

Commissioned by the OfS, the report provides views on the following:

• The risks to higher education provider finances that the OfS needs to be aware of
• The information required to assess those risks
• The information collected by the OfS and where there may be gaps
• What good regulatory practice looks like when collating financial information.

The fieldwork for the review took place between July and September 2023, and involved engagement with the OfS and higher education representative bodies, including UK Research and Innovation, the British Universities Finance Directors Group, and Independent Higher Education.