As the UK’s higher education sector shifts to a more demand-driven system, regulation needs to be greatly improved in order to protect students from failing universities which could threaten the UK’s global reputation, according to a report published this month by the Higher Education Commission. A tuition assurance scheme to protect students is among its central recommendations.
The UK government’s action to open up higher education to private providers has resulted in the “biggest shake-up to higher education since tuition fees were first introduced in 1998”, the report claims. It calls on the current government to bring forth legislation to create a new Common Regulatory Framework before the 2015 elections.
After an eight-month inquiry, the commission has put forth 13 recommendations including consolidating current regulating body HEFCE with other regulation agencies to form one overarching authority, the Council for Higher Education (CHE).
The report calls on the current government to bring forth legislation to create a new Common Regulatory Framework before the 2015 elections
Requiring all HE providers with a presence in the UK to register with the CHE and establishing a tuition insurance scheme to protect students are also among the commission’s proposals.
The UK’s Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said the government will be “studying the report very carefully”.
“Nobody wants to see more red-tape for our universities but HEFCE in its old role was a defacto regulator using the power of the purse and excercising discretion,” he said. “The challenge in this report is whether instead we need a more explicit set of rules within a council representing the different institutions involved in the supervision and regulation at the moment.”
Currently many commercial and overseas organisations that have not sought public grant, student support funding, degree awarding powers or university title are outside of HEFCE’s jurisdiction.
“It has been suggested that these organisations are posing the greatest risk to the reputation of the sector as they have the least amount of contact with regulators, making it hard to confirm their legitimacy and quality of provision” the report argues.
The new Common Regulatory Framework would create a kitemark to be awarded by the CHE, which institutions would receive once they had undergone a successful Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) review and subscribe to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, the body charged with reviewing student complaints.
With more tuition-based funding schemes in place, the likelihood of an institution failing is increased, the report claims. To protect students in such situations, the commission calls for a robust credit transfer scheme as well as allowing students to transfer loans and accommodations costs to alternative providers.
Establishing a fund which all providers pay into to safeguard students in the event of institutional failure was also recommended. However, not all institutions surveyed in the inquiry accepted the proposition, concerned that smaller providers “posed a greater threat to the entire system”.
The UK’s National Union of Students (NUS) agreed with the commission that the existing regulation does not guarantee financial stability in new providers. “In this environment it is vital that students are supported to make the choices right for them, and know that where things go wrong they are well protected,” said Vice President Rachel Wenstone.
“We understand that the example on Newsnight is an extreme case, but these examples damage the assertion that UK universities provide top quality education”
The report’s appeal for stricter regulation was followed by a recent investigation by the UK’s flagship news programme, Newsnight, that revealed The American University of London (AUOL) awarded bogus MBAs in exchange for a £4,500 fee.
“We understand that the example on Newsnight is an extreme case, but these examples damage the assertion that UK universities provide top quality education,” Jessica Bridgman, a senior researcher at Policy Connect the think tank that collaborated with the committee on the report told The PIE News.
“There are many traditional and alternative providers of higher education offering top-quality provision that rely on this reputation to recruit students domestically and internationally.”
The CHE kite mark will “give institutions more legitimacy in the sector and assure students of the top quality provision provided at the institution” she added.
