How to register

What can registered providers do?

Under the 2017 Higher Education and Research Act (HERA), a higher education provider in England is required to register with the OfS if it wishes to:

access public grant funding (such as funding to support teaching), and/or student support funding (such as enabling students at a provider to access student finance)
apply to the Home Office for a Tier 4 licence to recruit international students, or to maintain an existing licence
apply for degree awarding powers in order to award their own degrees, and/or university title.

Providers can choose to apply to register in one of two categories:

Approved (fee cap)
Approved.

A provider may subsequently choose to apply to change its registration category.

Registering in each category enables providers to do different things, as shown in the table below.

All registered providers are regulated by the OfS and must meet regulatory requirements that are proportionate to the risks to student and taxpayer interests.

		Approved (fee cap)	Approved
Public grant funding	Eligibility for direct grant funding provided by UKRI through Research England under section 97 of HERA	Yes	No
	Eligibility for OfS teaching grant funding or any other OfS payments under sections 39 or 40 of HERA	Yes	No
	Ability to apply for research council funding	Yes	Yes
	Ability for eligible students studying on eligible undergraduate courses to apply for support under the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011 (as amended)	Yes	Yes
	Ability for eligible students studying on eligible postgraduate courses to apply for support under the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011 (as amended)	Yes	Yes
	Ability for eligible students studying on eligible courses to apply for Disabled Students’ Allowance under the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011 (as amended)	Yes	Yes
Tier 4 sponsorship licence	Eligibility to make an application to the Home Office to recruit international students with a Tier 4 sponsorship licence	Yes	Yes
Degree awarding powers and university title	Eligibility to apply for authorisation to grant one or more of the following awards: a. Foundation degrees b. Awards in specific subjects c. Awards at bachelor-level d. Any taught awards e. Research awards	Yes	Yes
	Eligibility to apply to use ‘university’ or ‘university college’ in a provider’s title	Yes	Yes

Published 17 November 2020

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How to register

What can registered providers do?

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