The research regulatory infrastructure changed significantly following the Higher Education and Research Act (HERA). This GuildHE briefing highlights specific recommendations for the OfS and UKRI on how to bring greater coherence and constructive communication to the research regulatory landscape.

This briefing examines those parts – namely research degree awarding powers, postgraduate research students, and institutional engagement – which remain underserved by the provision that UKRI and the OfS ‘may cooperate with one another in exercising any of their functions’.

HERA initiated a raft of changes to the structure and make up of the organisations leading the research agenda. The Act introduced a regulator – the Office for Students (OfS) – and brought in a strategic umbrella to cohere the work of the research councils – UK Research & Innovation (UKRI). In so doing, some parts of the system which had once found a neat home under the auspices of HEFCE, now found themselves sitting uncomfortably between the core work of these two bodies.

Read / download the Regulation and Research Briefing

This briefing is the sixth in the series of briefings on different elements of regulation by GuildHE