The future of quality regulation – quick guide to our proposals
We are proposing to change the way we regulate and assess the quality of higher education in England. We are running a consultation from 18 September to 11 December 2025 on the principles, scope and structure of a revised system.
This is the first of two consultations. We plan to run a second consultation in autumn 2026 that will look at how the new system would work in detail.
We are seeking feedback from providers, students, academics, employers, and other stakeholders.
Our aims
We currently regulate quality in two separate ways:
- assessing specific universities and colleges where we are concerned they are not meeting our minimum requirements for quality and standards (set out in our ‘B’ conditions of registration)
- the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) – the national scheme that assesses and rates universities and colleges for degrees of excellence above our minimum requirements.
Our proposals would bring these activities closer together into a simpler system, which will aim to:
- ensure high quality education for all students
- drive continuous improvement across the sector
- provide clear information to students and the public
- support equality of opportunity.
In doing so we are acting on the independent public bodies review of the OfS. This recommended that our quality assessment activity should form a more integrated system.
Scope of assessments
We are proposing to revise and modify the TEF. TEF assessments would be more closely aligned with the requirements for quality and standards and include our assessments for student outcomes (condition B3).
The revised scheme would assess and rate all institutions that are registered with the OfS on a cyclical basis.
This would include smaller providers that have not taken part in the TEF previously, but we propose to vary the assessment approach where the data is limited.
The first cycle of assessments would cover undergraduate programmes, and from the second cycle we expect to include postgraduate taught programmes.
The assessments would remain desk-based, with rating decisions made by academic experts and student representatives.
The role of students
Students and their views play an important role in assessing quality. We are proposing to build on and strengthen this involvement.
So, we especially want to hear from students and student representatives.
In the previous TEF, students had the option to submit their views through a student submission. Under our proposals, we would seek direct and independent student input for all institutions.
It's not always practical for students to produce independent submissions so we propose to keep them as optional and invite alternative ways for students to tell us what they think. This might, for example, mean running student focus groups.
We would also continue to gather evidence from the National Student Survey and graduate responses to the Graduate Outcomes survey. We would expand the data we use from the NSS to include data about learning opportunities.
Students would also continue to form part of the assessment teams that assess and decide the TEF ratings for each institution. We are interested in increasing the number of student assessors from small and specialist institutions and invite views on how this could be done.
Students can comment on any areas of the proposals, but we’d particularly like their views about:
- our proposals for gathering student views in alternative ways
- how we can increase the number of student assessors from small and specialist institutions.
Aspects of assessment
We would assess institutions for two aspects:
- Student experience
This would assess the quality of courses, academic support, the resources the institution offers, how it assesses its students, and how it engages students in the development of courses (these areas reflect our B1, B2 and B4 conditions of registration).
The assessment would be based on evidence that the institution has supplied, evidence from students, and expanded indicators from the National Student Survey. - Student outcomes
This would assess students’ success in and beyond their studies, in terms of proportions of students who continue their studies from year to year and complete their course, and measures of further study and employment outcomes.
The assessment would be based on comparable data, and relevant contextual information submitted by the institution. It would consider whether each institution meets the continuation and completion thresholds we specify in a simplified B3 condition of registration.
Ratings and incentives
Each institution would receive a rating of Gold, Silver, Bronze or Requires improvement for each aspect, as well as an overall rating based on the lower of the two aspect ratings.
In the previous TEF, the Bronze, Silver and Gold categories all signified degrees of excellence above our minimum quality requirements.
We are proposing to change this so that a rating of Bronze means an institution is only delivering the minimum level of quality.
A Requires improvement rating would signal there are concerns the institution is not delivering the minimum level of quality.
The different ratings would be linked to additional rewards, or stronger mechanisms to drive improvement.
Institutions with Gold or Silver ratings would be assessed less often and may become eligible for some kinds of funding in future.
Institutions with Bronze or Requires improvement ratings:
- would receive increased scrutiny through more frequent assessment
- may become ineligible for some kinds of funding or applications for new or extended degree awarding powers
- could face limits to future growth in student numbers.
Monitoring and investigation
We would continue to monitor all providers between TEF assessments, using a new tool to help us identify where institutions are more at risk of not meeting our requirements.
Where we have significant concerns outside the assessment cycle, we may investigate them.
We would expect to carry out a number of investigations each year and to prioritise them according to risk.
How to have your say
You can let us know your views by responding to our consultation.
If you would like more information, you can attend our consultation webinars.
Describe your experience of using this website