A joint roundtable with London Higher and DfE on this consultation

Franchised higher education providers have been under scrutiny due to fraud concerns. A National Audit Office investigation found that over half of student loan fraud occurred at these types of providers. Neither the Student Loans Company nor the Office for Students have a direct role in addressing this fraud.

To enhance oversight and safeguard public funds, the Department for Education proposes in this consultation that franchised providers with 300 or more students must be registered with the Office for Students to access student finance.

Whilst acknowledging the logic of the proposal, we believe there could be alternative methods to increase oversight. Several issues would need to be addressed before implementation, including the OfS Regulatory Framework and the current registration process. Furthermore, new registration fees could discourage efforts to widen access. We are very interested to receive responses from members on these proposals and alternative suggestions.

You can find full details of the consultation here. This consultation closes at 11:59pm on 4 April 2025. GuildHE will be developing a complete draft response shortly. If you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected]. 

This is a member-only event