Consumer protection one year on: reflections from the sector UCAS Admissions Conference, 21 March 2016 Janet Graham, Director of SPA Carys Fisher, Policy Executive, UCAS Delyth Chambers, Director Student Recruitment Outreach and Admissions Service Dr Elizabeth Hough, Assistant Director (Head of Admissions) University of Warwick

The CMA advice for HEPs (March 2015) focused on compliance with the following consumer protection legislation:  Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPR)  Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 (CCR)  Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 (UTCCR) Plus from October 2015 Consumer Rights Act This is existing law The CMA view

 Consumer law sets out minimum standards that apply to an HE provider’s dealings with applicants and students to help them: o get the information they need to make informed choices about what and where to study o have the terms and conditions with the offer and are treated fairly during their studies o equip themselves to resolve problems if things go wrong – complaints process  HE providers that do not meet their obligations may be in breach of consumer law and risk enforcement action.  Students and applicants can take independent legal action.  The law applies to all parts of the UK.

Risk analysis If an HE provider failed to fulfil the terms of a contract and a cohort of 100 final year undergraduate students sought refunds of their fees and costs: Fees for three years:100 x 3 x £9,000 = £2,700,000 Living costs for three x nine months:100 x 3 x £10,000 = £3,000,000 Total = £5,700,000 (N.B. This doesn’t include damages for time lost and impact on future career earnings.)  Inherent strategic risk: likelihood = likely? impact = moderate?  Control actions required to reduce likelihood.

Possible strategic controls Managing change  Planning ahead e.g. five years for UG core curriculum (from prospectus to final year delivery = five years)  Planning ahead: courses validated before advertise  Setting and respecting deadlines for change  Being aware of what might change and why (is it reasonable) and communicating it well internally and externally Marketing information  Raising awareness of corporate responsibility for what is said about your educational services offering  Web governance – locating and resourcing a central authority to remove inaccurate information

Possible new operational controls  Offers to include essential pre-contract information: e.g. modular content, full statement of fees and charges, contact time etc.  Reviewing ‘full terms and conditions’ and retaining cohort versions: e.g. cohort versions of general regulations, date stamped for start of course.  Providing terms and conditions in ‘durable media’.  Managing expectations of service levels.  Mechanisms to ensure a consistency in approach among your different departments and faculties as well as the centre.

Possible new operational controls  Being clear about the roles of different marketing channels: prospectus, course database, departmental web pages.  Cleaning up and removing old information on the web and ensuring consistency of information across sources, ‘one version of the truth’.  Management of social media: clarifying the distinction between individual accounts and institutional accounts.  Staff awareness – how to engage at every level – understanding and following the CMA advice, your internal procedures and practices.  HEPs are responsible for the actions of their staff, who are acting in the university’s or college’s name or on its behalf.

UCAS update Consumer protection: Carys Fisher, Policy Executive –

Drive, implement, track, and review changes. Ensure UCAS’ compliance and support our customers in meeting their consumer protection obligations. Cross- organisational group; representative s from various business units. Consumer Rights Working Group (CRWG)

From seven to 14 days. Reply swap Applicants have the right to change their minds for up to 14 days after accepting a Change at Confirmation Offer (UCC). Confirmation Applicants have the right to change their minds for up to 14 days. Clearing Applicants have the right to change their mind for up to 14 days. Adjustment Operational changes to the ‘cooling off’ period

To support HEPs’ compliance: online content to reflect applicants’ rights and where to access further information flyer sent to all UCAS’ registered schools annual timetable for issuing communications to UCAS’ customers on a cyclical basis engagement with the CMA to unpack specific issues in the context of our systems Further activities To ensure UCAS’ compliance: review of UCAS’ business rules, declarations, and complaints and appeals process redrafting of applicant letters across all schemes revisions made to all UCAS publications

For example: providing the pre-contract information in a ‘durable medium’ bringing surprising or important terms to the attention of applicants supplying, or making available, the mandatory cancellation form clarifying partnership arrangements any more? Your relationship with UCAS Has the CMA’s advice affected your interactions with UCAS and its systems? If so, how? Which factors, within the context of consumer protection, would you like us to explore in redesigning our application services?

Consumer Protection Law: HE Admissions Delyth Chambers, Director (Student Recruitment, Outreach and Admissions Service) Liz Hough, Assistant Director (Head of Admissions)

Offer Stage An admission offer constitutes offer of a contract: – Provide confirmation of contract in durable medium – Provide material information in durable medium (and ensure this is not different from anything previously stated) – Give applicants notice of their cancellation rights Successful applicants now receive an ‘offer ’ with two pdf attachments: – Terms and Conditions – Material Information for their course

Offer You should carefully read the information below on fees, accommodation, funding and opportunities to visit, and the two attached documents - which include important information such as course fees and payment methods, course length and typical contact hours, your cancellation rights and our complaints policy - before deciding whether you wish to accept our offer via UCAS. You should also retain this information for future reference.

Fair terms and conditions They must strike a balance between our rights and obligations and those of students. For example: – no limitation on liability for non-performance; – no wide discretion to vary course content or increase fees; ‘The tuition fee for the academic year for the above course is £9000. The University will confirm the fee prior to enrolment and reserves the right to revise it in the meantime.’ – no blanket assignment of intellectual property rights to the University; – no academic sanctions for accommodation debts; – important or surprising terms highlighted.

Fair terms and conditions Our full terms and conditions, which are the same for all undergraduate offers, include our general regulations and other regulatory documents. They now cover: – Payment of Fees (obligations) – Provision of accurate information – Communication to and from the University – University regulations (specific) and changes thereto – Data Protection – Cancellation Rights – Complaints procedures

Disclaimers In these circumstances, the University will take all reasonable steps to minimise the resultant disruption to those services and to affected students, by, for example, offering affected students the chance to move to another course or institution, or by delivering a modified version of the same course, but to the full extent that is possible under the general law the University excludes liability for any loss and/or damage suffered by any applicant or student as a result of those circumstances.

Disclaimers The University will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver the course in accordance with the description applied to it in the University’s prospectus for the academic year in which you begin the course. However, the University will be entitled to make reasonable changes to the course (including to the content and syllabus of the course where developments in the subject area make that necessary, or the location of the course or the method of delivery of the course) where that will enable the University to deliver a better quality of educational experience to students enrolled on the course. In making any such changes, the University will aim to keep the changes to the minimum necessary to achieve the required quality of experience and will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required. If the University changes your course and you are not satisfied with the changes, you will be offered the opportunity to withdraw from the course and, if required, reasonable support to transfer to another provider.

Material Information Course specific (Home/EU and Overseas versions) Contain information on: – Key course details (title, duration, location) – ‘What you will study’… – Tuition fees – Additional course costs Challenges: – (In-year/cycle) changes to courses or other material information – Deferred applicants

What’s Next: Provision/ archiving and regular review of Ts and Cs, and material information Surprising terms Postgraduate courses Clearing

Questions?

Wider questions  How have you handled  Terms and conditions  Disclaimers  Material information and how have you actioned these in or with you offer?  How do you know you are compliant with the Consumer protection legislation? If you are not what are you doing about it?  How has the CMA guidance impacted the information you put onto UCAS.com and on other aspects of the UCAS application process?