In our response to the recent OfS consultation on payment of fees for investigations GuildHE emphasises that universities and colleges can only agree to pay for investigations when they have a bit more information.

We believe that there should be transparent criteria for starting an investigation, which should be agreed by a body that did not gather the evidence, and a clear indication of the cost, method and time an investigation will take.

It is also important that there is a focused scope for the investigation and that providers only pay for the part of the investigation that identified the breach. This will prevent unfocused investigations that are incentivised to identify minor breaches to cover the costs of the whole investigation.

Read the full GuildHE response to the consultation