Alex Proudfoot, Chief Executive of Independent Higher Education (IHE), said:
“We have long supported a principle of universal regulation that is proportionate, flexible and efficient, so that students can benefit from the widest possible range of innovative provision safe in the knowledge that the quality is high and their interests will be appropriately protected.
“Sadly these are not words that anyone who has undergone the registration process run by the Office for Students in the past seven years would use to describe it. The recent surrender of their clear statutory duty to administer such a process comes after too many years of unacceptable performance, opaque decision making and the absence of reliable service standards.
“In 2024 the OfS registered just seven providers, despite rising demand and a backlog of applications, so it is obvious that any requirement from Government to register what could be hundreds of additional providers within a two-year period must be accompanied by substantial extra resource and a dramatic reprioritisation of effort towards this core statutory function.
“More than that, to get this job done will require a cultural step change within the regulator itself and a leadership who genuinely understand the importance of growth, innovation and investment in the higher education sector. It's time for the OfS to meet the challenge set so clearly by the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer this week and start regulating for growth, not just for risk.”