Lifelong Learning Entitlement

We have been preparing for how we will regulate providers who are offering LLE-funded higher education, to protect public funding and ensure high-quality provision.

We’ve included some initial information for providers below, and we’ll share more about how this will work in practice over the coming year.

Registering with the OfS

Any institution looking to access LLE funding will need to be registered with the OfS.

There are two registration categories, and it is for individual providers to determine which category is suitable for them.

We have a duty to protect taxpayer’s money so must ensure we’re confident in institutions who register with us. While the previous government’s request was for the OfS to develop a third category of registration with conditions proportionate to a reduced set of benefits, given increasing concerns over risks to public funding and financial sustainability, we agree with the Department for Education (DfE) that now is not the right time to introduce this.

We are not currently accepting new applications for registration but will resume doing so in August 2025. Read more about temporary changes to registration and other applications.

To support providers in preparing for registration, the government will extend the current system of Advanced Learner Loan funding for Levels 4 to 6 until the end of summer 2030.

Consultation on conditions of registration for further education colleges

During autumn 2025, we expect to consult on proposals to disapply certain conditions of registration for providers in the further education statutory sector, which will look to remove areas of overlap of regulation between the DfE and the OfS with the aim of reducing regulatory burden.

The proposals are likely to apply to further education colleges who do not hold degree awarding powers and are already subject to regulation by the DfE, including further education colleges that are newly seeking OfS registration.

Currently we don’t think that it would be appropriate to reduce the regulation of providers with DAPs given their autonomous status, the need for ongoing assurance that DAPs criteria are met, and the potential for broader risk exposure through validation and subcontracting.

Measuring outcomes for students on modules

We plan to publish the summary of responses to our call for evidence on measuring outcomes for students on modules during autumn 2025.

We will then start collecting data related to completion in the 2027-28 student data returns, after which we’ll look to develop a completion measure which we will consult on before it informs our regulation.

We’ll most likely propose to measure completion in a very similar way to our existing completion metric, adjusted to account for the much shorter length of study. This could be in use for our regulation from 2030-31, subject to consultation.

As we better understand the extent of modular study, we’ll consider what additional outcome measures will be helpful and how best to obtain the relevant information. This could include a measure of ‘progression’, for example, whether a student goes on to study another module, to complete a qualification, and what that completed module or qualification enables them to do, such as changing employment.

We will also be consulting on our wider plans for an integrated quality assessment system in autumn 2025, and how outcomes for students on modules are reflected in that system.

While students will begin studying on LLE-funded modules from January 2027, implementing outcome measures to inform our regulation will take time.

To ensure that we are protecting the interests of students and safeguarding public funding when the LLE has launched, we’ll be working with the designated data body, the DfE, and the Student Loans Company to identify data that will tell us about LLE-funded students studying at OfS registered institutions, and to identify any emerging risks.

This may lead to us flagging particular cases requiring us to take a closer look. We expect any institution eligible to offer LLE-fundable modules to ensure they can do this in a way that meets our conditions, prioritises students interests and protects public funding.