A regulatory framework that’s truly in the interest of students needs to anticipate developments to stay fit for the future.
Universities are subject to regulation across their activities. This regulation serves a range of purposes, but arguably one of the most important is protecting and enhancing students’ experience of higher education.
As highlighted in our Blueprint for change, it’s important to focus on where regulation can support and enable universities to work with their students to better protect their interests.
Ahead of the Office for Students’ (OfS) new strategy, we held workshops between 2024–25 with university leaders and students’ union representatives to reflect on what it means to regulate higher education providers in the student interest.
We believe there should be ongoing conversations between students, the higher education sector and the OfS to better understand the student interest and the most appropriate approaches to protect it.
Key themes
This briefing highlights five key themes that emerged from our engagement with university senior leaders and student representatives:
quality
employability
conditions of learning
safety and belonging
transparency
These are some areas we believe the OfS should remain mindful of throughout its work.
Workshop outcomes
One of the biggest reflections from our workshops with members and student representatives was the importance of remembering that ‘the student’ is not a single entity. Regulating what is the interest of students means regulating for a diverse community.
In my university, we call it growing the whole individual: making sure when they finish, they’re able to stand on their own, including networking skills, interpersonal skills and digital skills. That includes whether they want to go and own their businesses or work for others or be part of an enterprise moving forward.
This requires an approach across organisations that appreciates and capitalises on the work of key players. One of these key players is of course the OfS, and we hope this briefing helps to identify the few core areas where the OfS can have the most impact when regulating in the student interest.
Regular three-way dialogue between students, universities and the OfS will be invaluable to protecting and promoting the student interest.
It has been so helpful and informative to hear and share an array of views from people who work in our universities and from students themselves on how to regulate in the student interest. We hope this evidence will help inform the new Office for Students strategy alongside the work we do with others within our sector to care for our students in a very changing world.
