Our response to the Office for Students' 2022–25 strategy

Working together with the OfS

Our members are already engaging in activities that we think align strongly with many of the OfS' goals in these areas. This includes collective activities led by us, as well as what our members are doing individually with their own students.

We’re encouraging the OfS to work with the sector where there are opportunities for collaboration and to help promote good practice. 

We also welcome the continued commitment to reduce burden and bureaucracy through principles-based regulation. This will allow universities to work in ways that best fit the needs of their students and the types of courses they provide, and to focus more of their attention on delivering teaching and learning and supporting students. 

More clarity is needed

However, we think the strategy misses out some important things that the OfS should be clearer about. These include:

• How the OfS will implement and adapt its strategy to reflect student interests and priorities.
• How the OfS plans to operate as an organisation beyond the goals and regulatory activities listed – for example, how it will work with other regulators and agencies, how it will manage new issues, how it will position itself as an independent voice, and how it will prioritise areas within the strategy.
• The potential impact of OfS’s preferred approach, which is focused primarily on monitoring and enforcement, rather than acting on problems in a public and transparent way.

Equally, we need a regulator that recognises and does not undermine the wide range of good work and innovation happening across the sector by focusing so much of its attention – and that of the public – on the minority of cases where things are not going as well as they should. 

We would like to work with the OfS as it refines its strategy and puts it into operation.

Read our full response [PDF]