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Select committee: Industry and Regulators Committee

Government response to the Committee's report, Must do better the Office for Students and the looming crisis facing higher education, 27 November 2023

Published 28 November 2023

Industry and Regulators Committee The work of the Office for Students Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to 2nd Report - Must do better: the Office for Students and the looming crisis facing higher education.

This is the government's response, published 28 November 2023.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government "maintains its strong support for the OfS", disagrees with several of the Committee's criticisms, and says that many recommendations are ultimately for the OfS to consider.

  • On the OfS's duties, the government says they are "clearly set out" in HERA, which "deliberately does not give the OfS primary objectives or prioritised duties". It does not agree that the OfS is micro-managing freedom of speech or sexual harassment.
  • On regulatory duplication, the government "fully acknowledges and accepts the need to reduce regulatory duplication". It plans a piece of work, to deliver in summer 2024, to set out the full scope of data burden across the sector.
  • On funding, the government says it "will set out its longer-term funding plans for the HE sector at or ahead of the next Spending Review".
  • On graduate outcomes, the government "rejects this conclusion" that the OfS's measures run counter to widening access. It says it has commissioned the IFS to develop a course-level graduate earnings measure.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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