Key performance measure 5

The proportion of students who are aware of the OfS

This interim KPM measures the proportion of students who report being aware of the OfS.

We expect to replace this with a KPM measuring the proportion of students reporting trust and confidence in the OfS once awareness levels are higher.

Why are we measuring this?

‘We will deliver our work in collaboration with students and the institutions we regulate. We will cultivate relationships based on mutual respect, confidence and trust.’ (The OfS strategy 2025 to 2030)

The OfS regulates in the interests of students, and we want students to have confidence that we do this effectively. This KPM will track the proportion of students who have trust and confidence in our approach.

Currently, however, awareness of the OfS among students is low. Higher awareness of the OfS among students is needed before we can measure student confidence effectively. As an interim measure, we will track the proportion of students who have heard of the OfS. We plan to shift to reporting the proportion of students who have trust and confidence in the OfS in the future, once awareness levels are higher.

What does this show?

KPM 5 shows that in autumn 2025, around 28 per cent of students were aware of the OfS. Although there have been small fluctuations since autumn 2024, none of these are statistically significant. This indicates that overall student awareness of the OfS remained broadly stable between autumn 2024 and autumn 2025.

Awareness is higher among postgraduate students – at 39 per cent – and lower among undergraduate students, at 21 per cent. As with the overall figures, differences compared with previous terms are not statistically significant, and the pattern of higher awareness among postgraduates than undergraduates has remained broadly stable since autumn 2024.

How is this calculated?

The interim measure reports the proportion of students who answer yes to the following question, which is asked as part of our pulse survey of current students:

Before today, had you heard of the Office for Students?

The student pulse survey is run six times a year, at the start and end of each term. We will update this KPM three times a year, using the average of the two surveys from each term, to improve the reliability and accuracy of the measure. It has been backdated to autumn 2024.

The student pulse survey is a five minute online survey administered by Savanta based on a self-selecting panel of students. It receives approximately 1,250 responses per wave, comprising around 750 undergraduates and 500 postgraduates. The total sample is weighted on a number of student characteristics to be representative of the wider student population.

In future, we plan to report the proportion of students who respond positively to questions about trust and confidence in the OfS. Methodological details will be shared alongside the measure.