Regulatory burden on smaller providers:
GuildHE has published the first in a series of briefings looking at the regulatory burden on smaller and specialist institutions, highlighting the impact of smaller datasets, resources and proportional costs, regulatory overlap and changing expectations and communications.
The series of briefings will explore different elements of regulation, regulatory burden and regulators and develop a series of practical of recommendations. We recognise the value of good regulation to protect the interests of students, staff and around public funding but regulatory burden should be regularly reviewed to ensure that it is doing what it was intended to do and in the most efficient way and ensure that it meets the Regulators Code.
Many GuildHE institutions deliver professional, vocational and technical education are so are subject to a wide range of regulators including OfS, OfSTED, IfATE, ESFA as well as subject-level PSRBs. This regulatory burden creates huge additional burden on institutions – often having to return data on the same students to multiple regulators in different formats.
The first briefing, published 11 November, has a particular focus on the Office for Students considering how it gathers the views of those that it regulates through consultations and whether and how it gathers views on its own activities.
Read briefing #1: Introduction, burden, cost and overlap
Read briefing #2: ‘Regulation of Higher Education in England – is there another way?’