What the OfS does for students

We regulate the higher education system in England, working in the interests of students and prospective students from all backgrounds, including:

• undergraduates and postgraduates
• students studying full-time and part-time
• those based on campus and learning at a distance

We are not responsible for further education such as A-levels and T-levels. That’s covered by the Department for Education.

We want to make sure that students:

• are helped to access, succeed in, and progress from higher education
• receive a high quality academic experience
• have their interests protected while they study
• can progress to employment or further study, with qualifications that hold their value over time
• receive value for money.

Listening to you

It’s vital for us to hear and understand students’ views. We do this by:

• appointing a student representative to our main board
• having a Student Interest Board
• seeking the input of students’ unions and individual students, for example through consultations, surveys and input into access and participation plans.

Providing information for you

Part of our role is to make sure that prospective students have good information to guide their decisions.

We do this by:

• running Discover UniExternal link (Opens in a new tab or window), the official, authoritative source of information and guidance on higher education in the UK
• commissioning the National Student Survey, which collects the views of more than 450,000 students about their university or college and their course
• managing the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which rates universities and colleges on how they provide value
• working with the Higher Education Statistics AgencyExternal link (Opens in a new tab or window) to publish information such as outcomes and employer needs.

If you’ve got a question

While the OfS works in students’ interests, we don’t handle queries from individual students.

If you have questions about courses, accommodation or student services, you should contact your university or college in the first instance.

If you have questions about the admissions process, contact UCASExternal link (Opens in a new tab or window).

If you’ve got a complaint

If you have a complaint against your university or college, you should contact them in the first instance and follow their internal procedures.

If that does not work, then you can lodge a complaint to the independent student ombudsman, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA)External link (Opens in a new tab or window).