Consultation on quality and standards
We are proposing some changes to the way we regulate quality and standards.
Update: Following the latest national lockdown, most providers will need to spend time putting in place any changed arrangements for teaching. In these exceptional circumstances, we have therefore extended the deadline on our consultation on quality and standards from 12 to 25 January 2021.
Read more and give feedback
It is essential that English higher education delivers positive outcomes for students.
This means that providers need to meet specific requirements for the quality and standards of the courses they offer.
What requirements do providers need to meet?
To register – and stay registered – with the Office for Students, the quality of a higher education provider’s academic experience must meet a minimum set of requirements, or conditions.
When a provider first registers with the OfS, they are tested to make sure they meet these conditions Once registered, we monitor them to make sure these conditions are maintained.
The conditions they need to meet are:
Condition B1: The provider must deliver well-designed courses that provide a high quality academic experience for all students and enable a student’s achievement to be reliably assessed.
Condition B2: The provider must provide all students, from admission through to completion, with the support that they need to succeed in and benefit from higher education.
Condition B3: The provider must deliver successful outcomes for all of its students, which are recognised and valued by employers and/or enable further study.
Condition B4: The provider must ensure that qualifications awarded to students hold their value at the point of qualification and over time, in line with sector recognised standards.
Condition B5: The provider must deliver courses that meet the academic standards as they are described in the Framework for Higher Education Qualification (FHEQ) at Level 4 or higher.
The regulatory framework sets out these conditions, the behaviours we would expect a provider to follow, and behaviours that would indicate a provider is not continuing to meet these conditions.
Read the regulatory framework
Contact us
For more information or queries about quality and standards email [email protected]
