3. Alternative Provider Engagement The next four months
Rob Stroud Head of AP Intelligence and Engagement Independent HE Conference 28 November 2017

4. Overview Review of AP engagement activity
Current priorities and planned activity
The future

5. AP Engagement ‘through the ages’
AP engagement activity beyond the course designation function started by HEFCE in September 2014
A challenging environment
Urgent application of Student Number Controls by BIS
Home Office action
National Audit Office report
Public Accounts Committee
2015 a watershed moment – formation of the AP Intelligence Unit with BIS
Structured engagement with providers for the first time
Significant investment of resource by BIS and HEFCE
Resource mobilised from the start of academic year
Lots of new information and intelligence captured

6. Development of AP engagement
Year 1: Getting to know you
Year 2: Developing nuanced and proportionate engagement
Year 3: Bespoke engagement and preparation for the future
What next?

7. Developing the sector – where are we now?
Working with individual institutions – over 250 visits
Working with stakeholder groups
Supporting stakeholder engagement activity with DfE – appropriate signposting and channelling
Two ‘sold out’ conferences to share practice and develop and understanding
Provider workshops on key topics – e.g. NSS, TEF webinar etc.
Sharing our knowledge – briefings for sector groups, other public sector bodies, blogs
Recognised impact in supporting DfE’s sector oversight

8. Current priorities for HEFCE with APs
BBC Panorama
Annual redesignation
Recording queries on the DfE consultations
HEAPES
Strict deadline of noon on the 14th December
Streamlined verification activity
Guidance and newly developed online training resources
Supporting provider engagement with TEF Year 3
Engaging providers with specific projects – e.g. Quality in Small Providers, Governance, Harrassment Task force
Business as usual with ongoing provider engagement

9. Plans for 2018
Plan is that HEFCE formally ceases to exist as an organisation on 31 March 2018
Now developing our engagement approach for the first three months of 2018
Two major priorities:
Engagement with providers according to the regulatory context
Highlighting to providers the need to be “Ready to register”
Important for providers to recognise that HEFCE and the OfS
are different organisations – this is not ‘just’ a change of
name
OfS provider registration will open in April 2018 –
Replaces annual redesignation
Currently we do not have more detail on the OfS operations

10. Mission accomplished?

11. Thank you for listening

12. Consulting on the OfS’s new Regulatory Framework
Securing student success: risk-based regulation for teaching excellence, social mobility and informed choice in higher education
Consulting on the OfS’s new Regulatory Framework

13. Five Consultations
The consultation on the OfS’s regulatory framework forms part of a suite of five consultation, running in parallel. All relate to the implementation of the Higher Education and Research Act:
The OfS’s Regulatory Framework
OfS Registration Fees
Degree Awarding Powers & University Title
Designated Data Body
Designated Quality Body
There will be a separate consultation on monetary penalties by the end of the year.

14. The Regulatory Framework
The Register, Conditions, and how the OfS will regulate

15. The OfS’s Objectives
Objective 1: all students, from all backgrounds, are supported to access, succeed in, and progress from, higher education
Objective 2: all students, from all backgrounds, receive a high quality academic experience, and their qualifications hold their value over time in line with sector- recognised standards
Objective 3: that all students, from all backgrounds, have their interests as consumers protected while they study, including in the event of provider, campus, or course closure
Objective 4: that all students, from all backgrounds, receive value for money

16. The OfS as a market regulator
The OfS will take a risk-based approach, and monitor risk at:
the sector level – creating conditions for choice and competition, and using interventions to address sector-wide market failure
the provider level – regulating providers to protect outcomes for students – risk monitoring will primarily take place at this level.
All providers must meet a high baseline – both initially and on an ongoing basis.
Ongoing monitoring proportionate to risk

17. The Register Registered basic Approved Approved (fee cap)
Official recognition as HE
Must sign up to OIA
Limited additional registration conditions
Approved
Access to student support
Eligible to apply for Tier 4 licence, DAPs and UT
Registration conditions in relation to Quality, FSMG, transparency and student protection, etc.
Approved (fee cap)
Access to student support and grant funding
Subject to fee cap

18. Initial Conditions of Registration
For the approved and approved (fee cap) categories, providers must meet initial conditions in relation to:
Access & Participation Plan or Statement
Quality and Standards
Financial Viability and Sustainability
Management and Governance
Student Contracts and Consumer Law
Student Protection Plans
All initial registration conditions will remain as ongoing general registration conditions once a provider has registered

19. Ongoing Conditions of Registration
In addition, providers in the approved and approved (fee cap) categories will be subject to ongoing conditions relating to:
Transparency
Information regarding senior staff pay
Subscription to the OIA
Information regarding student transfer arrangements
Facilitating electoral registration
TEF
Accountability, payment of fees and the provision of information
Where applicable: compliance with the fee limit and any terms and conditions of grant funding

20. Risk, Monitoring and Interventions
OfS regulation will be risk-based, and proportionate
Risk drives the level of regulatory engagement with a provider: based upon the likelihood of a provider breaching their conditions
Following an in-depth assessment at registration, ongoing monitoring will be largely information and data driven, supplemented by random sampling
OfS can intervene in a number of ways if it spots emerging risks:
Enhanced monitoring
Specific Conditions of Registration
Sanctions

21. Transition and next steps
Date
Activity
January 2018
The OfS will be established
February/ March 2018
The OfS publishes its regulatory framework
April 2018
Secure OfS portal opens for applications to the new register
July 2018
OfS confirms registration status for providers with courses that have an early UCAS application deadline
Mid September 2018
The OfS publishes the register for the first time.
From 1 August 2019
The new regulatory framework will be fully in force
Transitional arrangements will be in place for regulating existing providers between April 2018 and August 2019.

22. Deadlines and how to respond
All consultations close on 22 December
Responses are possible:
Online via Citizenspace
By to
By post to:
Catherine Gregory
Department for Education
Sanctuary Buildings
20 Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
Whilst we will ensure any discussions and feedback from this event today are considered as part of the consultation, we would encourage you all to formally respond to our consultations.