Better support, better decisions, better outcomes

The Office for Students has a duty to ensure that everyone is supported to make the right choices for them about higher education. Informed choice underpins the regulatory framework in which we operate. It is embedded in our role to support informed choice for all students, at all levels, directly from school and later in life. This not only has the potential to help us meet our aims around improving access to higher education, but is also critical in ensuring positive outcomes for all.

The CFE report states that ‘schools and higher education information providers do have a responsibility to support prospective students to make more informed decisions and choices that satisfy their own needs’. We’ve started work shaping and defining what our approach to improving information, advice and guidance will look like. It is vital that our approach in this area draws on the best and most reliable evidence. Most importantly, this will mean adopting an approach informed by an understanding of how people make decisions in the real world, supported by the latest thinking and technology. It will be rooted in behavioural psychology approaches, and driven by research and collaboration directly with students and those who advise them.

October 2018