The Department for Education (DfE) opened a consultation in May 2026 to seek views on exploratory proposals relating to the structure of fees charged by the Office for Students (OfS) to higher education providers in England.
The consultation focused on how the fee system is designed and distributed across providers. It responds to the recommendation in the Independent Review of the OfS, published in July 2024, which advised that DfE review the fee structure in the context of the OfS’s current and planned work on efficiency and productivity.
The consultation ran from 26 May 2026 to 21 July 2026. The results of the consultation and DfE's response will be published in 2026.
Our response
In our response we argue that the OfS fee model requires fundamental reform to become fairer, more proportionate and more transparent. We welcome recognition that the current model falls disproportionately on smaller providers, but we do not believe that changes to fee weighting alone will address the underlying problem.
Central to our response is the view that annual registration fees should move away from the current banded structure and towards a genuine per-student model, supported by a modest flat fee where necessary to provide income stability for the regulator. The existing system creates significant cliff edges that can penalise growth and places the greatest regulatory burden on providers with between 500 and 1,500 students, which IHE survey evidence shows spend the highest proportion of their income on regulation. While we support reforms that reduce these disparities - including the creation of an additional fee band for the largest providers and retaining discounts for micro-providers and new entrants - we continue to call for a full review of the fee band structure.
Throughout our response, we emphasise that regulatory costs are ultimately borne by students and that proportionality is therefore a student-interest issue as much as a provider-interest issue. We support the principle that providers should contribute towards the costs of registration, Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs) and other regulatory processes, but only where fees are transparent, predictable and linked to a more efficient regulatory system. New charges should be supported by clear and enforceable service level agreements, staged charging that reflects the work undertaken, and mechanisms that allow providers to challenge costs and decisions. Providers should not be asked to fund regulatory inefficiency.
Our response's central message is that any transfer of costs to providers must be matched by greater accountability from the regulator. We argue that increased transparency over OfS costs and performance, independent routes of appeal, and meaningful consequences for missed service standards are essential if the fee model is to command confidence across the sector.
Overall, IHE supports a fee regime that encourages sustainable growth, protects student interests, maintains sector diversity, and distributes the costs of regulation fairly and proportionately across higher education.
Read our full response using the download link below.