A shock move by the higher education regulator to close its register and put applications for degree awarding powers on ice has forced “disappointed” colleges and training providers to delay courses.
The move could also be illegal, according to a senior education lawyer, with one HE representative body taking advice about a judicial review.
The Office for Students (OfS) announced on Monday it had closed its register to new higher education providers for the first time so its staff could prioritise “severe pressures” facing universities.
It also paused granting any more institutions degree awarding powers. These changes will be in effect until August 2025.
The move has left colleges and training providers unable to introduce new higher education provision in key sectors like health, engineering and hospitality.
There are 18 providers whose applications to join the OfS register are in the early stages and have now been paused. And there are 20 providers hoping for degree awarding powers.
Degree awarding power applications for a further 17 providers that are already in progress will continue.
Stifling economic growth
Waltham Forest College is one of the colleges affected by the closure of the register.
Its “carefully planned” HE courses in partnership with local NHS Trusts are now in limbo, despite the skills they’d deliver being flagged as priorities in the London Growth Plan.
Principal Janet Gardner told FE Week the register closure follows “a lot of investment” in developing the new provision.
“Specialist staff have been employed, equipment purchased, new quality structures with committees, space has been refurbished. This was a long process to ensure we were ready before we registered,” she said.
“So for us, this is disappointing. We would like the OfS to reconsider their decision. Any delay has a knock-on effect on what we’re able to offer current and future students.”
Apprenticeship provider HIT Training had rallied employers to commit “350 places” for their planned level 6 degree programme for the hospitality sector.
Managing director Mike Worley told FE Week the course would have “attracted talent to a sector that is crying out for bright and hardworking people but currently unable to compete with sectors offering degree apprenticeships”.
He added: “Using OfS resources to support failing HE providers at the detriment of bringing innovative, financially stable providers into the market will stifle the skills and growth the Labour government is seeking to achieve.”
Derwentside College principal and chief executive Chris Todd said closing the register delays his plans to introduce and expand higher-level diploma courses in engineering, which has “strong demand”.
Despite the outcry, the government appears to have backed the OfS.
A DfE spokesperson said: “The dire economic situation we inherited emphasises the importance of putting universities on a firmer financial footing, so they can deliver more opportunity for students and growth for our economy.
“The Office for Students is rightly refocusing their efforts on monitoring financial sustainability to help create a secure future for our world-leading universities.”
‘Legally questionable’
This unprecedented step follows new analysis of higher education providers’ financial and student recruitment projections indicating that up to 72 per cent could be in deficit in 2025-26.
The OfS said small, medium and specialist providers are more likely to be struggling the most financially and it is these types of providers that would typically be seeking registration and/or degree-awarding powers from the regulator.
Providers with existing time-limited degree awarding powers that lapse during the pause will have them extended, an OfS spokesperson told FE Week.
A body representing independent higher education providers accused the OfS of directly jeopardising the financial sustainability of existing providers and “prioritising one set of students’ interests over another”.
Alex Proudfoot, chief executive of Independent Higher Education, said: “What is perhaps most worrying of all is that the OfS board seems to believe they can simply disapply their core statutory duties as determined by parliament, whenever it suits them. This is troubling as a precedent.”
FE Week understands the body is consulting lawyers on possible options, including a judicial review.
Writing in FE Week, senior education lawyer Smita Jamdar said “the legality is questionable.”
She added: “The Higher Education and Research Act states the OfS ‘must’ register an institution if certain conditions are met, one of which is that the application is made in the manner specified by the OfS.”
The OfS has issued a notice to state that, for now, its “specified manner” means “not in the period between November 26, 2024 and August 1, 2025”.
Jamdar added: “The OfS has used its power to specify a manner of application to impose a moratorium on submissions for 10 months, which may be extended. If its approach is correct, it could pause its duty to register indefinitely, which would completely undermine the mandatory nature of the duty.”
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