Registering with the Office for Students as a further education college

Further education colleges offering higher education courses must register with us.

Registering with us enables colleges to access public funding and student support funding, and sponsor international students, among other benefits. 

Once registered we work closely with colleges to ensure appropriate quality and standards, equality of opportunity and student protection.

Consultation on changes to registration requirements for colleges

We recently opened a consultation on proposed changes to how we regulate further education colleges in England.

The proposed changes, if adopted, would remove the requirement for further education colleges applying for registration to submit information for the initial conditions of registration listed below:

• Condition A2 (access and participation statement)
• Condition D (financial viability and sustainability)
• Condition E7 (a set of governing documents)
• Condition E8 (fraud and inappropriate use of public funds)
• Condition E9 (individuals).

Apart from condition A2, the proposed change applies to further education colleges that are not seeking degree awarding powers (DAPs).

The change proposed to disapply condition A2 would affect all further education colleges (with and without DAPs).

Applications for registration during the consultation period

From 2 December 2025, further education colleges applying for registration do not have to submit evidence relating to the above conditions of registration that we are proposing to disapply.

We will shortly issue a bespoke version of Regulatory notice 7: Application requirements notice, which will be in place until the consultation outcomes are published, setting out the revised submission requirements.

We are doing this so that colleges can continue to be able to make applications during the consultation period while reducing the time they spend in developing and submitting evidence for conditions that may be disapplied in the future.  

Once we have published the consultation outcomes (expected by early summer 2026), we will issue a further application requirements notice for any remaining evidence if required.

Alternatively, colleges may choose to continue to submit evidence against all conditions, meeting the standard Regulatory notice 7: application requirements notice, or wait until the consultation concludes before submitting an application that meets any new requirements.

Colleges should consider the risks of applying before the outcomes of the consultation are published, particularly of any decision to proceed with a quality and standards assessment for which there is a fee.