Higher education courses can be provided by different types of institution: higher education institutions (HEIs) in receipt of government funding through annual grants from the Office for Students (OfS); further education (FE) institutions; and alternative (private) providers (see the articles on ‘Types of Higher Education Institutions’ and ‘Organisation of Private Education’). The article on ‘Types of Higher Education Institutions’ describes the different types of institution, and the remaining articles in the chapter focus on the range of programmes and levels of study that feature in the system.

Higher education (HE) in England shares a number of characteristics and structural features with HE in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. In all four parts of the United Kingdom, HEIs are autonomous self-governing bodies that offer degrees by virtue of their own degree awarding powers or the degree awarding powers of another institution. These degree awarding powers are recognised by the UK authorities (UK and Scottish Parliaments, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies). Institutions are responsible for appointing and employing their own staff (see the chapter on ‘Teachers and Education Staff’).

Reflecting these commonalities and shared missions, a number of sector-led bodies operate on behalf of higher education institutions across the UK. These bodies include:

• Universities UK (UUK), whose members are the executive heads of UK institutions
• GuildHE which, along with UUK, is a recognised representative body for higher education in the UK
• the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), which coordinates student applications services across the UK
• the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), which collects data from higher education providers to support UK governments and higher education funding bodies in their regulatory and funding work
• Advance HE, a sector agency promoting equality and diversity, learning and teaching, and leadership and governance in higher education – since March 2018, it has included the Higher Education Academy (HEA), which offers professional development opportunities and accreditation for courses that support staff who teach and / or support learning
• the Committee of University Chairs (CUC), which represents the chairs of UK university governing bodies, and develops and promotes governance standards for higher education in the UK.

Within the context of institutional autonomy, some common approaches and frameworks are used. There is no system for the accreditation of institutions, but the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) makes judgements on UK institutions’ capability to manage their own quality and standards, and the UK Quality Code for Higher Education provides the definitive reference point for institutions. See the article on ‘Quality Assurance in Higher Education’ for further information on the Quality Code.

Assessment of research operates on a UK-wide basis through the Research Excellence Framework (REF), although there are differences in the way the funding bodies use the results to allocate funding for research infrastructure. See the article on ‘Higher Education Funding’.

Grants for specific research projects and programmes are administered on a UK-wide basis by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a body established in 2018.

In addition to the commonalities, there are also some distinct differences in higher education provision in the UK. The most notable of these are differences in tuition fees and student support, the funding of institutions and governance arrangements. These divergences have developed, in particular, since the late 1990s when the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland and Wales took on responsibility for education.

In England, teaching in most subjects is now supported by tuition fees rather than by direct grants from government, although there is some annual grant funding from the Office for Students (OfS), which became the regulator for higher education in April 2018, succeeding the former Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). HEIs wishing to receive this funding must register with the OfS, as must HEIs wishing to have access to the student support system, recruit international students with a Tier 4 sponsorship licence, and/or have degree awarding powers and ‘university’ title.

Policy objectives for higher education 

Policy for higher education falls within the remit of the Minister of State, a role which has responsibilities within both the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The Minister’s DfE priorities include:

• universities and higher education reform
• higher education student finance
• widening participation and social mobility in higher education
• international students and international research
• review of post-18 education and funding
• tackling extremism in higher education.

Within BEIS, the Minister’s responsibilities include science and research and the UK’s Industrial Strategy (see subheading ‘Industrial Strategy’ below).

The Government set out its higher education priorities in a number of documents during the 2015 to 2017 Parliament.

• Fixing the Foundations: Creating a More Prosperous Nation (July 2015) proposed actions to increase UK productivity growth to 2025. It made several commitments for higher education, with the aim of keeping the sector competitive and open to all who could benefit, and included the proposal for the development of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) (then called the Teaching Excellence Framework; see below). It also contained plans to overhaul the student finance system and remove limits on the numbers of students that higher education institutions (HEIs) could recruit.
• The consultation document Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice (November 2015) contained specific proposals building on the productivity plan and, in response to the consultation outcomes, the Government published the White Paper, Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice (May 2016). In addition to aiming to secure increased participation in higher education, the White Paper proposed the establishment of the Office for Students (OfS).

The Coalition Government, in office from 2010 to 2015, raised the level of yearly tuition fees that universities in England could charge to £9000 (€10,168.34*) from September 2012. This increase was subject to universities committing to more ambitious measures to widen access, agreed with the independent Director of Fair Access to Higher Education, and implemented proposals set out in the June 2011 White Paper, Higher Education: Students at the Heart of the System. This took forward the recommendations from Lord Browne’s 2010 review, Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education. The maximum fee has since risen to £9250 (€10,450.79*) for HEIs which meet criteria linked to the TEF.

For an overview of recent shifts in higher education in England, see the Universities UK publication Patterns and Trends in UK Higher Education 2018, the latest in a series that provides a summary of annual statistical data about the UK higher education sector in the context of the trends of the previous decade.

The Department for Education provides a collection of statistics on widening participation in higher education since 2010 on its website.

 * Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.88, ECB 16 September 2019.

Higher Education and Research Act 2017 

The implementation of higher education policy in England went through a period of transition between April 2018 and July 2019, as reforms that were introduced under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 came into force. This Act became law in April 2017 and it included the following provisions.

• The Office for Students (OfS), a new regulatory body to oversee the higher education sector in England, was created. The OfS has explicit duties focused on choice, quality and value for money and, in performing its functions, it must also have regard to the need to protect the institutional autonomy of higher education providers. The OfS became fully operational in April 2018, replacing both the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). Its responsibilities include:
  • focusing on equality of opportunity in connection with access to and participation in higher education
  • facilitating new high-quality providers to start up and achieve degree awarding powers (DAPs), and subsequently secure university title (see the article on ‘Types of Higher Education Institutions’)
  • operating the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) (see below) to recognise and reward high-quality teaching
  • distributing public funding to higher education institutions (HEIs) through annual grants, which are based on funding allocations determined each year within a policy framework set by government.

• The aim of bringing greater transparency to the data held by the higher education sector was established.
• Risk-based regulation was established, with the aim that the higher education sector serves its stakeholders (students, employers and taxpayers).
• A single research and innovation funding body, United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), was created to operate across the whole of the UK, bringing together the seven research councils, Innovate UK and a new organisation, Research England.

The Government provides strategic guidance to the OfS, setting out its specific priorities for the coming academic year, in the same way as it previously sent annual grant letters to HEFCE. The guidance for 2019/20 maintains the Government’s focus on endeavours to protect funding for high-cost subjects (notably to enable high quality provision in science, technology and engineering), for widening participation, and for small and specialist institutions.

Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) 

The Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) is a process introduced by the UK Government to measure the quality of teaching in English higher education institutions (HEIs). It rewards those HEIs providing high quality teaching by permitting them to charge a higher level of student tuition fee (‘differentiated’ tuition fees). The introduction of the first TEF assessment in 2015/16 and awards for 2016/17 followed concerns that, in many HEIs, teaching has been less valued than research. HEIs in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales may opt to apply for inclusion, although holding a TEF award has no effect on the tuition fees which they are able to charge.

The TEF draws on existing, nationally collected data to provide assessors with six main metrics that relate to each of the aspects of teaching excellence:

• student satisfaction with teaching on their courses (collected through the National Student Survey)
• student satisfaction with assessment and feedback
• student satisfaction with academic support
• student retention
• employment or further study (six months after graduation)
• highly skilled employment or further study (six months after graduation).

Since its launch, additional data has been added to strengthen the metrics above. From 2017/18, measures from the Department for Education’s Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset were included, to explore where graduates are employed and what they earn three and five years after graduation. Moreover, from 2018/19, as part of a pilot to move towards subject-level TEF awards (see below), grade inflation metrics were introduced, in order to help tackle grade inflation at provider and sector levels, as investigated by the OfS and the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment in late 2018.

A panel of student representatives, academic peers and experts assesses each provider in line with the above metrics and considers the evidence contained in a provider submission. Providers then receive a Gold, Silver or Bronze award. The TEF assessment undertaken from 2019-21 is expected to produce full subject-level awards, in addition to provider-level awards.

The TEF was first carried out during the academic year 2015/16, after which providers received ‘meets expectations’ awards. Gold, silver and bronze awards were first introduced for providers at the end of 2016/17. From 2017/18, institutions conferred an award in the previous year have been permitted to charge a higher maximum student tuition fee of £9250 (€10,450.79*) per year, as opposed to £9000 (10,168.34*), the maximum for institutions without an award.

In November 2018, the Government announced an independent review of the TEF and published terms of reference. A consultation was held from January to March 2019, and a report is expected to be published in summer 2019, so that its recommendations can be considered before the implementation of subject-level awards.

For further information about the TEF, see the information provided by the Office for Students on its website.

Research England, which forms part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is developing a Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) on behalf of the UK Government to bring together a range of measures of impact from HEIs’ collaboration and knowledge exchange work. The aim is that this will enable HEIs to benchmark and develop their own performance and increase their accountability to taxpayers, local government and businesses. The KEF is also intended to complement and support the TEF and the Research Excellence Framework (REF) (which is described under the subheading ‘External assessment of quality of research’ in the article on ‘Quality Assurance in Higher Education’). Research England published the responses to a call for evidence held in December 2017, along with further information on its work. A consultation on the proposals for the KEF was held in early 2019. Additionally, 21 HEIs were recruited to take part in a pilot exercise to test and refine KEF proposals, which ran from February to May 2019. A report evaluating the pilot is due to be published alongside an analysis of consultation responses in early summer 2019.

* Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.88, ECB 16 September 2019.

Widening participation

Widening participation in higher education has long been a feature of government policy, seeking to address discrepancies in the take-up of higher education opportunities, and retention in higher education, between disadvantaged and under-represented student groups and their peers.

In its 2015 Green Paper, Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, the Government set two targets for widening participation by 2020, which it reiterated in its 2016 White Paper, Success as a Knowledge Economy:

• to double the proportion of pupils going into higher education from disadvantaged backgrounds
• to increase the number of students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds entering higher education by 20%.

The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 led to the establishment of the Office for Students (OfS), the new regulator of the higher education sector, which took over the functions of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). An important part of its responsibilities involves overseeing widening participation in higher education:

‘The OfS will […] have a duty to promote equality of opportunity[.] This will mean looking beyond getting students from disadvantaged backgrounds into university – they will also be charged with making sure that providers are doing all they can to support the students through their course, helping to tackle drop-out rates and support disadvantaged students into employment.’

The OfS’s Director of Fair Access and Participation is responsible for ensuring that higher education institutions (HEIs) support under-represented groups to access and succeed in higher education, by approving their access and participation plans. Furthermore, the OfS launched the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP) in 2017, which brings together universities, colleges and other local partners to deliver outreach programmes to young people in secondary school. In February 2019, the OfS helped to establish the Evidence and Impact Exchange (EIX), which will bring together senior leaders and practitioners from across the higher education landscape to discuss and understand effective practice in increasing access, student success and progression.

The policy paper Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential (December 2017), which aims to improve social mobility through education, is the Government’s national plan to support children and young people to reach their full potential. It contains an objective to create high-quality post-16 choices for all young people by expanding access to the best higher education institutions (HEIs) and improving the quality of technical education. This objective is also being addressed by the ongoing review of post-18 education and funding (see below). A House of Commons briefing paper, published in January 2018, traces developments in this policy area since 2010.

Review of post-18 education and funding 

Government policy places higher education in the wider context of the range of options available to those aged 18 years, and is seeking to create a system that:

• is accessible to all
• is supported by a funding system that provides value for money and works for students and taxpayers
• incentivises choice and competition across the sector
• encourages the development of the skills that the UK needs at national level. 

In early 2018, the Government set up a review to consider how it can achieve these aims and established an independent review panel to provide input. Led by Philip Augar, the final report was published in May 2019. The recommendations for higher education funding included:

• reducing higher education tuition fees to £7500 (€8473.61*) per year
• extending the student loan repayment period from 30 years to 40 years
• reducing the interest charged on student loans while students are studying
• capping the overall amount of repayments on student loans to 1.2 times their loan
• reducing the income threshold for student loan repayments from £25,000 (€28,245.39*) to £23,000 (€25,985.76*)
• reintroducing maintenance grants of £3000 (€3389.44*) for disadvantaged students
• introducing maintenance support for Level 4 and Level 5 qualifications.

For further information, see this House of Commons Library briefing (May 2019).

* Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.88, ECB 16 September 2019.

Industrial Strategy 

The Government’s Industrial Strategy (published in November 2017) impacts on higher education. It aims to improve living standards and economic growth by increasing productivity and driving growth across the UK and highlights, in particular, the important role of higher education in helping to tackle skills shortages in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

International Education Strategy 

In March 2019, the Government published its International Education Strategy, outlining its plans to increase students numbers and income generated from international education. It includes the aim of increasing the number of international students studying in the UK by more than 30% by 2030.

Legislative framework 

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in England are autonomous self-governing bodies. The structure of programmes is not regulated by law. Subject to the status of their degree awarding powers (DAPs), HEIs are free to design and offer such programmes and awards as they wish. However, all institutions structure their programmes along broadly similar lines (a three-cycle framework, incorporating undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral study), which conforms to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) qualifications framework.

The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 introduced new provisions relating to regulation, quality, and research and innovation funding, and established the Office for Students (OfS), which became operational in April 2018, as the regulator for higher education in England. In February 2018, the OfS published a new regulatory framework for higher education in England, Securing Student Success, setting out four primary regulatory objectives (page 14):

‘All students, from all backgrounds, and with the ability and desire to undertake higher education:

• are supported to access, succeed in, and progress from, higher education
• receive a high quality academic experience, and their interests are protected while they study or in the event of provider, campus or course closure
• are able to progress into employment or further study, and their qualifications hold their value over time
• receive value for money.’

Quality assurance in higher education is not regulated by law. HEIs are responsible for the approval of their own programmes and for ensuring that appropriate standards are achieved. They are judged on how well they fulfil these responsibilities and the effectiveness of their processes by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). The main reference point for the QAA’s work is the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which sets out the expectations that all providers of UK higher education are required to meet, and provides them with a shared starting point for setting, describing and assuring the academic standards of their higher education awards and programmes and the quality of the learning opportunities they provide. See the article on ‘Quality Assurance in Higher Education’ for further information on the Quality Code.

The current arrangements for tuition fees for full-time undergraduate students operate under the Higher Education Act 2004. The Act brought about substantial changes to what institutions could charge, with the maximum annual amount prescribed by regulations made under the Act by the Secretary of State. The 2004 Act also established the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) to promote and safeguard fair access to higher education for under-represented groups in the context of increased tuition fees; this role transferred to the OfS in April 2018.

Changes to the regulations prescribing the maximum annual amount for tuition fees from 2012 were approved by Parliament in December 2010. Since then, and since the passing of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, HEIs that meet or exceed expectations for quality and standards in teaching, as established by the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF), are able to increase their fees in line with inflation. At the end of 2016/17, a majority of HEIs in England fulfilled these criteria and were conferred a gold, silver or bronze award, leading to most of them announcing tuition fee rises from 2017/18.

Regulations made under the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 require that tuition fees are set at the same level as the maximum amount of loan support the Government makes available to full-time undergraduate students. Fees for postgraduate students are not regulated (see the article on ‘Higher Education Funding’).

Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) 

Although not required by law to do so, all institutions design their qualifications in accordance with the Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies (FHEQ). This is developed by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and forms part of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education. The FHEQ is intended to promote consistency across the sector, by facilitating a shared understanding of the expectations associated with typical qualifications, and ensuring that qualifications with the same titles are of an equivalent academic standard.

The fundamental premise of the FHEQ is that qualifications should be awarded based on achievement of outcomes and attainment rather than years of study.

The five levels of the FHEQ are numbered 4–8 (Levels 1–3 cover levels of education that precede higher education).

Qualification descriptors illustrate the distinct level of intellectual achievement for each level of the framework. They indicate the threshold academic standard for those qualification types, in terms of the levels of knowledge and understanding and the types of abilities that holders of the relevant qualification are expected to have (FHEQ, pages 19-32).

Subject benchmark statements make explicit the nature and characteristics of awards in a specific subject area, and set out the attributes and capabilities of graduates in that subject. They exemplify what the generic outcomes set out in the qualification descriptors in the FHEQ might look like in practice.

The following table illustrates the main types of qualifications.

(Adapted from QAA (2014). Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies (FHEQ), page 17)

The FHEQ has been self-certified as compatible with the Framework for Qualifications of the European Higher Education Area (FQ-EHEA).

Note: The FHEQ is not a credit framework. For a description of the use of credit in English higher education, see the subsection 'Branches of study' in the article 'Bachelor'.

Structure of the academic year

The structure of the academic year is not regulated by law. However, for funding and reporting purposes, the academic year runs from 1 August to 31 July.

The teaching year typically starts in mid to late September or early October and ends in mid to late June. The year is traditionally divided by breaks into three teaching terms, although some institutions organise teaching along a two-semester system.

A small number of institutions offer accelerated degrees, which require student attendance for longer periods during the year. In an effort to encourage the expansion of accelerated degrees, The Higher Education (Fee Limits for Accelerated Courses) (England) Regulations 2019 were passed, meaning that students undertaking accelerated degrees from September 2019 onwards would save 20% on their tuition fees, compared to traditional courses.

For postgraduate students, the organisation of time varies. Where a taught master’s programme has a duration of one year, this normally means a full calendar year, e.g. October to October.

Teaching typically takes place between 9.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m., from Monday to Friday, but may take place at other times. Part-time courses may run during the day or in the evening.

Article last reviewed September 2019.