Student contract terms amended at a higher education provider following an OfS referral to National Trading Standards

In January 2024, Middlesex University and Irshad Trust, which trades under the name The Islamic College, terminated their validation partnership. As a result, new students on courses delivered by Irshad Trust would no longer receive formally recognised degree awards and would not be eligible for Student Loan Company (SLC) funding.

During a review of the college’s website and UCAS, where the courses were also advertised, the OfS identified concerns with the transparency, accuracy, and accessibility of information Irshad Trust was providing to prospective students, as well as the fairness of terms in its contract with students.

The OfS referred Irshad Trust to National Trading Standards, which advised several terms could breach consumer protection legislation. These included:

• confusing and misleading information about the courses offered
• misleading claims regarding student loan eligibility
• terms and conditions that were difficult to locate
• an unclear refund policy
• references to Middlesex University on course webpages despite Irshad Trust’s courses no longer being validated by the university. 

In response to advice from Trading Standards, Irshad Trust made a series of amendments to its website content, course descriptions, and student-facing policies, to ensure compliance with consumer protection law and that its contractual terms were fair.

Jean Arnold, Interim Director of Quality and Access at the OfS said:

‘Existing and prospective students must have access to clear and accurate information about their course. It’s important that the OfS remains vigilant to addressing misleading descriptions of the services for which students pay significant amounts of money.

‘We welcome the positive steps Irshad Trust has made in response to our concerns, and we will continue to work with National Trading Standards to ensure institutions are treating their students fairly. We will also continue to share the outcomes of these referrals to help institutions and students better understand the types of terms that may be unfair in contracts and other student-facing materials.’

Notes

1. The Office for Students is the independent regulator for higher education in England. We are striving to deliver exemplary regulation in the interests of students. Find out more about our new strategy.
2. Read all our case reports, including our previous referrals to National Trading Standards.
3. The agreement between the OfS and National Trading Standards is a backstop that will operate until 2027, after originally being in place until 31 March 2024. The partnership agreement may be subject to renewal.