2021
Additional £50 million to support university students impacted by Covid-19
In February 2021, the DfE announced that thousands of students will benefit from an additional £50 million (€58.2 million)* to support them with financial pressures from the pandemic
*Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.86, ECB, 12 March 2021.
2020
Review of higher education admissions system
In January 2020, the Office for Students (OfS) launched a consultation seeking views on the system of admissions to higher education institutions (HEIs) and on proposed future options. The consultation is set in the context of:
- concerns about HEIs’ increased use of unconditional offer-making, where prospective students are offered places before taking their examinations, regardless of the grades they might achieve
- the OfS’ belief that contextual offer-making, which takes account of applicants’ backgrounds, could be further developed to narrow the gaps between the most and least advantaged groups.
The consultation document requests feedback on how effectively the existing system operates and sets out three alternative future options:
- retaining the existing system with reforms (e.g. increasing the number of entry points to higher education, providing greater transparency about entry requirements, and improving the accuracy of predicted examination grades)
- introducing post-qualification offers (PQO), where HEIs make offers to applicants only after their Level 3 qualification results are known
- introducing post-qualification applications (PQA), where applicants themselves finalise and share their applications with HEIs once they receive their results.
The OfS notes that any significant changes to higher education admissions practices would require collaboration and partnership with stakeholders from across the education system and would be subject to further consultation with those stakeholders.
At the time of writing (March 2020), the consultation is paused, and a deadline for responses is to be confirmed.
Simplified application process for research funding
In February 2020, the Minister for Science announced that UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the non-departmental public body which administers grants for specific research projects and programmes on a UK-wide basis, is to trial a new, simplified application process for research funding. The new process no longer requires applicants to make precise forecasts of the long-terms benefits of their projects, recognising that results are often unpredictable.
Programmes to be treated in this way include the ‘New Horizons’ fund, supporting research projects across maths and physical science, which has £10 million (€10.86 million*) of funding.
In addition, the Government has asked UKRI to pilot a relaxation of the eligibility requirements for the new doctoral studentships to be funded from the Advanced Maths programme, with the aim of attracting the best mathematicians internationally to start their careers in the UK.
*Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.92, ECB, 24 March 2020.
2019
Opportunity Areas programme extended
See the item in ‘National Reforms in School Education’.
Post-18 education and funding review reports
On 30 May 2019, the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding (the Augar Review), which had been set up in February 2018, issued its report. This made recommendations concerning skills, further education, apprenticeships and higher education. The recommendations for higher education funding included:
- the reduction of higher education tuition fees to £7500 (€8093*) per year
- government to replace lost fee income by increasing the teaching grant
- extending the student loan repayment period from 30 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 (€26,977*) to £23,000 (€24,818*)
- reintroducing maintenance grants of £3000 (€3237*) for disadvantaged students
- introducing maintenance support for Level 4 and 5 qualifications.
The House of Commons Library issued a briefing (CPB-8577) on the review and report in May 2019.
*Exchange rate used: €1 = £0.92, ECB, 14 August 2019.
International Education Strategy
On 16 March 2019, the Government published a new International Education Strategy, outlining plans to increase student numbers and income generated from international education.
2018
Accelerated degrees
On 19 November, the Government published its response to a consultation on changes to the annual tuition fee cap (limit), together with a range of measures to incentivise innovation and encourage wider provision and take-up of accelerated degrees. Accelerated degrees give students the opportunity to study the same content and quality of degree as a standard programme, but over two years rather than three and with more teaching time per year.
The Government also published an impact assessment of policy proposals to set specific higher annual fee caps for accelerated degree courses.
Implementation of TEF
On 19 November, the Government announced that an independent review of the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) would be undertaken by higher education expert Dame Shirley Pearce. The terms of reference for the review were also published. A call for views ran from January to March 2019. At the time of writing (March 2020) the Government had not yet published the review, or its response.
The TEF (originally the Teaching Excellence Framework) is a process introduced to measure the quality of teaching in higher education institutions (HEIs), and to reward those HEIs providing high quality teaching. Its introduction followed concerns that, in many HEIs, teaching had been less valued than research. It is designed for universities and colleges in England, but those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also able to choose to participate.
The TEF draws on existing, nationally collected data to provide assessors with a common set of metrics that relate to each of the aspects of teaching excellence:
- teaching on the courses taken by students responding to the National Student Survey
- assessment and feedback
- academic support
- non-continuation
- employment or further study
- highly skilled employment or further study.
Alongside these metrics, to inform their judgements, assessors consider the evidence contained in a provider submission.
In October 2017, the Department for Education (DfE) published Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework: lessons learned from Year Two. This included an announcement that the TEF, while retaining the same acronym, was being renamed the Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework, to reflect the broad-based assessment of teaching, learning and outcomes it aims to provide.
The DfE ran a consultation between March and May 2018 on proposals to undertake TEF assessments at a disciplinary (subject) level, an intention which was set out in the 2016 White Paper, Success as a Knowledge Economy. From spring 2021, TEF will be assessed and ratings will be published at subject and provider level.
UK Quality Code for Higher Education revised
In November 2018, the revision of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education was finalised. This followed a consultation which ran between October and December 2017, coordinated by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) on behalf of the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (UKSCQA).
The UK Quality Code for Higher Education is the definitive reference point for all UK higher education providers, though use of the Quality Code documentation itself is voluntary. The Code, which is produced and maintained by the QAA, makes clear what higher education providers are required to do, what they can expect of each other, and what students and the general public can expect of them. It covers all four parts of the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales).
The redevelopment was intended to:
- allow the Code to be agile and responsive
- respond to regulatory change and the diversifying UK higher education landscape
- place students at the heart of the Code
- reflect sector views on how the Code can best serve a changing sector.
The revised Code is based on three elements.
- Expectations - the outcomes providers should achieve in setting and maintaining the standards of their awards, and for managing the quality of their provision.
- Practices - effective ways of working that underpin the delivery of the expectations and deliver positive outcomes for students. These include:
- core practices that must be demonstrated by all UK higher education providers as part of assuring their standards and quality
- common practices, applied by providers in line with their missions, their regulatory context and the needs of their students. These are practices common to the underpinning of quality in all UK providers but are not regulatory requirements for providers in England.
- Advice and guidance – to help both established and new providers to develop and maintain effective quality assurance practices.
Measures to support student mental health
On 28 June 2018, the Universities Minister announced a package of measures on student mental health. These included:
- the development of a University Mental Health Charter, with new standards to promote student and staff mental health and wellbeing
- the setting up of a Department for Education-led working group into the transition students face when going to university, to ensure they have the right support, particularly in the critical first year
- exploring whether students arriving at university could be asked if they wished to opt in to a system of nominating a trusted family member or other person who could be contacted in case of a mental health issue.
On 7 March 2019, the Government also created a new student mental health taskforce to support students to deal with the challenges of starting university.
Office for Students (OfS) comes into force
The Office for Students (OfS) came into force on 1 January 2018, under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017.
The OfS is the new regulator for higher education, replacing the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). It became fully operational in April 2018 and its role is to hold universities to account and promote students' interests.
The OfS’ four primary regulatory objectives are that:
‘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.’
In February 2018, the OfS published Securing student success: Regulatory framework for higher education in England. It works with the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), which has been named as the designated data body, and with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), named as the designated quality body, to implement this framework.
One of the OfS’ main tasks in 2018 was to register current and new providers in time for the full regulatory framework to become operational for the academic year 2019/20. During 2018/19, it continued operating existing regulatory arrangements, while preparing for full launch of the new regulatory system from 1 August 2019. The OfS also assumed HEFCE’s role in relation to degree awarding powers.
The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 introduced a transparency duty requiring higher education providers to publish data on the backgrounds of their applicants to make their admissions processes clearer. The OfS is also responsible for monitoring this and for carrying out the duty to consider access and success for students from disadvantaged backgrounds alongside choice and competition. Further information on the role of the OfS in widening access and participation is available on its website.
Article last reviewed March 2021.