In response to the OfS written response to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Inquiry on 27 November 2023, Gordon McKenzie, GuildHE CEO said:

“We welcome the OfS’ response to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Inquiry and their intention to engage students more fully in their activities and to report annually on how this has shaped their work.

The OfS response is a positive step towards greater transparency and accountability and we look forward to working with them on sharply reducing regulatory cost and tackling the burden of regulatory overlap.”

Our previous response to the recommendations of the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee report into the work of the Office for Students is below.

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We welcome the recommendations of the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee report into the work of the Office for Students: ‘Must do better: the Office for Students and the looming crisis facing higher education’. 

On 13 September 2023, GuildHE CEO Gordon McKenzie responded:

“The Committee’s report draws on a wealth of evidence and clearly shows that the OfS requires improvement to deliver effective regulation on behalf of students and regain the trust of key stakeholders.

GuildHE has strongly advocated for regulatory improvement during the past year. We are pleased to see the Committee’s recommendations align with the view of our 60 member institutions that the OfS must have a greater focus on strategic issues, align its quality framework to international standards, reconvene the HE Data taskforce to prevent regulatory duplication and – critically – the OfS must ensure greater student involvement in its decision making.

We also welcome the overarching point that it is vital the Government urgently puts in place a stable, long-term funding model for the sector.

We recognise that the OfS has recently worked to improve relationships with key stakeholders and we look forward to working together to deliver better outcomes for students. The UK’s diverse higher education sector is a national asset. It deserves excellent regulation.”