Students’ perspectives on higher education changing in response to financial challenges

Our most recent analysis of the higher education sector’s financial position found that, without mitigating action, nearly half of institutions are facing deficits in 2025-26. We know many universities and colleges are taking action where necessary to remain financially sustainable.

In the 2025 National Student Survey, 86.9 per cent of final-year students reported receiving high quality education and experiences, demonstrated by the positive response to questions relating to ‘teaching on my course’. This provides some reassurance that institutions have been generally navigating financial challenges well, protecting key elements of students’ academic and broader experiences.

Higher education providers have told us that they are reviewing and making changes to the following areas to ensure their offering is targeted to student demand and available resources, scaling back and refocusing as needed:

• academic portfolios, reducing course and module availability where enrolment is low
• student support services
• levels of staffing and resourcing
• selling teaching, office and accommodation spaces to reduce estates expenditure.

We know that some of the changes required will be significant, and wanted to better understand students’ experiences of these changes. We commissioned independent research to explore this. I explore the survey’s findings below. (Note that results are based on a panel survey of around 1,200 students, so may not fully reflect the views of all students.)

What did we find out?

Half of the students who answered the survey had noticed measures at their institution that they perceived as cost-cutting. These students reported the following:

1. 83 per cent considered that these measures had changed the higher education experience they felt their institution had promised them, often through larger class sizes than expected, greater use of online learning, or reduced access to academic resources and student support.
2. Around a quarter reported changes in support services, including services offered by student unions, IT and technical support, and academic support services.
3. Around two in five reported perceived impacts on access to academic resources and the quality of teaching, and a reduction in extracurricular activities.

Overall, 46 per cent of those polled expressed concern about the potential closure of their course or department, yet nearly half were unaware of their options if this occurred.

Students reported they would expect practical help to navigate disruption, with a majority expecting to receive help transferring to another provider and support to complete their studies.

What should institutions do in response?

It is important that institutions take necessary action to remain financially viable and sustainable. However, this student insight research suggests that students are aware of financial pressures facing institutions and are concerned about how measures to address these may impact their studies.

We remind institutions to:

1. Consider the potential effects of changes to provision on different student groups and courses before implementation, review their impact over time and address issues as they arise. Students should be consulted with and informed about any changes.
2. Ensure students are aware of and receive what was promised in relation to their consumer rights. Students should be aware of their institution’s complaint handling system, which should be accessible, clear, fair and timely, and are able to seek prompt redress where necessary. Institutions should signpost students to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of the complaint.
3. Ensure that they are meeting our regulatory expectations on quality and equality of opportunity while securing financial resilience. This includes ensuring any changes to course delivery, learning resources or academic support continue to meet our requirements. Where proposed changes affect what was included in an access and participation plan, they should contact us to discuss a variation to the plan, and changes should not be made unless the variation is approved.

What will the OfS do in response?

In response to these emerging findings, we will be:

1. Vigilant: We will further engage with students and institutions through our existing mechanisms, and our new Provider Panel and student interest board, to build a more detailed understanding of the nature of these risks and how they change or develop over time. We will engage with institutions that are most exposed to financial pressures and support them to take the steps necessary to build a sustainable future.
2. Ambitious: We want to see high standards of student access and successful participation in high quality, diverse provision, along with maintaining strong expectations that institutions work together with their students to effectively navigate any financial challenges. We will continue to monitor how these issues evolve using regulatory intelligence and data. We will also harness new technologies and in-year and alternative data sources to gain further leading indicator insights.
3. Collaborative: We will encourage institutions to work together to respond to the financial challenges and explore alternative business models and ways of working. We will collaborate with the sector to explore how to facilitate this and share best practice, as well as working with the sector and others to understand how student choice and course availability develop and change over time.
4. Vocal: We will communicate clearly to the sector and the government about the implications of financial pressures for quality, equality of opportunity and student choice, without undermining institutions that are making difficult decisions as part of their transformation. We will provide clear information about our requirements to help institutions meet our regulatory expectations in this difficult financial context.