Fit for the Future: Independent Review of the Office for Students

That the OfS reduces its number of strategic objectives, and focuses on the priorities of monitoring financial sustainability, ensuring quality, protecting public money, and regulating in the interests of students.

That government and the OfS further consider the legislative powers and tools required to enable the OfS to effectively regulate against these priorities.

That to support the OfS to enact a strong, student championing role, the OfS be given consumer enforcement powers.

That the OfS and sector explore the development of a model students' contract for higher education.

That the OfS seeks opportunities to involve students directly in its formal governance and regulatory activity, by constituting the student panel as a formal committee to the board and including students in quality assessments and investigations.

That the OfS considers an enhanced focus on the assurance of the management and governance of providers and how they carry out the range of priority areas for their students and providers, by revising and strengthening the 'good governance' ongoing conditions of registration (E conditions).

That the OfS board reviews its risk appetite framework and approach with a view to becoming more proactive in anticipating, identifying, and responding rapidly to address emerging risk.

That DfE and the OfS engage the sector in an ongoing, constructive dialogue with a view to reducing unnecessary regulatory burden, including data burden, and to seek to embed the Regulators' Code principle of 'collect once, use many times.'

That the OfS works more collaboratively with other regulators and arm's length bodies within the wider higher education system to understand their collective requirements and identify opportunities to reduce areas of regulatory overlap and duplication.

That the OfS considers the benefits of an independent academic evaluation of its practice and approach, alongside stakeholder feedback, in seeking to improve itself. This should include an evaluation of the effectiveness of its regulatory intervention.

That the OfS consults the sector when implementing changes to regulatory methods and then pilots such approaches before formal roll out.

That the OfS's quality assessment methodologies and activity be brought together to form a more integrated assessment of quality.

That the OfS contributes to the overall improvement of the higher education system, providing a continuous improvement feedback loop and description of high-quality higher education. This will help ensure improvement of both the sector as a whole, and individual providers.

That the OfS be prescribed as an official whistleblowing body to ensure whistleblowers can be afforded full protections when providing information. This intelligence should inform the qualitative assessment of risk to quality.

That the OfS describes high quality education and the standards required to demonstrate high quality, without the need for a separate designated body to perform this function. The designated quality body functions as set out in HERA should therefore be removed to clarify that the OfS will perform this role.

That government undertakes policy work to revisit and clarify its position on market exit, and whether the non-interventionist positioning is still the most appropriate for meeting the challenges of today.

That the OfS and government continue to build an infrastructure to offer advice, guidance and support for providers experiencing financial sustainability challenges, considering options such as early warning identification, management of emerging risk and prevention of disorderly market exit.

That the OfS continues to work with the sector to build and share an accurate and current picture of financial risk in the system, developed through open and honest dialogue and the sharing of intelligence with the sector, government, UKRI and relevant partners. This should support sector planners to undertake realistic and prudent forecasting, scenario planning and decision making.

That the OfS revises the requirements for student protection plans to ensure these are current, detailed, and accurately consider risks to and mitigations for these risks to students.

That the OfS develops a comprehensive stakeholder strategy, including an annual stakeholder survey, to continue building on its relationship with the sector.

That the sector reciprocates with the OfS, engaging productively and willingly with regulation.

That the sponsorship team act as the central conduit between the OfS and government, managing the initial policy asks of the OfS. Outside of agreed business planning, all new and ad hoc requests for work should be managed by the sponsorship team, until such time as that work has been agreed as part of, or as an adjunct to the business plan.

That stronger information sharing protocols are put into place between the OfS and government to enable joined-up working and proactive feedback around key areas of shared priority and risk.

That there is regular contact between DSIT and DfE to enable a joined-up approach to sponsorship and to allow for more open dialogue regarding financial sustainability, as part of a wider cross-government approach to sharing knowledge and learning about regulation.

That the OfS develops a more transparent style of communications to demonstrate to the sector its independence from government.

That the OfS commissions an independent board evaluation.

That DfE carefully considers upcoming appointments to the board, taking the opportunity of vacancies to ensure it has the required skills, experience, and expertise for the challenges the sector will face over the coming decade. This includes finance, risk, and regulatory experience.

That DfE reassesses which members of the OfS's leadership team are appointed by the Secretary of State. In keeping with other arms' length bodies, the Secretary of State should appoint the chair and non-executive directors. The board should then appoint the chief executive and the chief executive should in turn appoint their executive team. This will provide clear lines of accountability and avoid a dilution of the chief executive's authority. The review recognises new legislation would be required to enact this.

That there should be a review of which specific executive roles formally constitute towards the make-up of the board's membership.

That the OfS continues to pursue efficiency savings and enhanced productivity as it considers the efficacy, accountability, and governance recommendations of this review.

The OfS should align its business planning with a continuous improvement cycle that considers efficiencies in line with effectiveness and agree a resourcing plan with DfE.

That DfE conducts a review into the OfS's fee structure within the context of the OfS's current and planned work on efficiency and productivity.