The long-awaited Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper has finally been published. We’ve been really pleased to see GuildHE’s voice reflected at various points within the paper, from a warning about the risks of homogenisation in the sector to the importance of preserving and protecting diversity and specialisation through considerations of regulatory burden and funding mechanisms. While the headlines of the paper are being digested across the sector, we know the devil will be in the details expected in the months ahead. Below, as a starting point, we provide a high-level breakdown of what we see as key priorities going forward.

Funding and regulation

GuildHE welcomes the commitment to increase tuition fee caps for the next two academic years and to review the impact of the TPS on institutional sustainability. These are concerns we’ve highlighted strongly over the past year. 

A commitment to legislate for future inflationary uplifts is a welcome effort to formalise future investment in the sector, though questions remain about the means by which those further increases will be tied to OfS’s scrutiny of quality. Furthermore, aligning the Strategic Priorities Grant solely with Industrial Strategy priorities may inadvertently divert funding away from regionally significant, high-cost disciplines and the supply of public sector workers; both of which would jeopardise the growth at the heart of these proposals. Growth sectors identified nationally won’t be mirrored equally in all regions, so it is essential that any funding reform enables a level of flexibility that can respond to regional needs while protecting specialist provision across the country. This is true of OfS funding and also the Growth and Skills Levy, which will need to be arranged in such a way as to enable smaller-scale providers to access and participate within the frameworks it will support.

We welcome the commitment to improve regulatory burden by minimising dual regulation through closer collaboration between OfS and UKRI; a direct response to GuildHE campaigning. Moving forward, OfS will need to improve its support for the sector in order to actively incentivise meaningful collaboration, move away from a pure market approach, and act in a genuinely risk-based way. If Office for Students is to act as the regulator for all higher-level study, including FE-delivered HE, it must demonstrate proportionality in its approach to different types of institutions. Similarly, reforms to research assessment and the introduction of Higher Technical Qualification awarding powers should embed fair access for specialist institutions contributing to local innovation and applied research.

Regional collaboration

GuildHE supports the direction of travel to increase collaboration within the sector, whether that be through regional skills initiatives, collaborative research or teaching activities, or the sharing of facilities or back-office functions. 

The paper’s emphasis on the need to retain ‘healthy competition’ to ensure choice does little to mitigate risks to smaller-scale institutions in an environment made more fraught by ongoing financial constraints. GuildHE would like to see a more nuanced consideration of what is needed to ensure competition and collaboration are balanced in a way that secures student and staff choices while also protecting specialist and smaller-scale institutions.  

The proposed devolution of adult skills budgets and the strengthened role of Strategic Authorities may improve local responsiveness and set conditions for collaboration. GuildHE will urge the government to ensure that rural, coastal and non-mayoral areas are considered equally to those within cities and broader strategic authority areas.  National safeguards should protect smaller institutions that are vital anchors for skills and innovation outside major conurbations.

Research

GuildHE members’ specialist research and collaborative infrastructure already set the standard for the coherent and collaborative high-quality research environment the government seeks. Our members produce demonstrably high-quality, efficiently-funded, curiosity-driven research that provides distinctive insights, often linked to professional and local communities. We will be looking for a careful balance of funding priorities to ensure that such valuable work isn’t sidelined.  

There must be space for both research that fits into government priorities and work that is determined by the specialised knowledge and understanding of excellent researchers. Reforms of research funding are particularly welcome, as access for smaller-scale research environments has traditionally been challenging. To be truly transformative, these reforms need to mandate and incentivise collaboration across institutional types, ensuring these smaller, impactful providers are empowered and included from the outset and by design. 

The reset of REF 2029 provides us all with the opportunity to bring about improvements in research assessment, and GuildHE has been proactive in bringing our members’ insights to inform the work being undertaken. It remains crucial that the assessment continues to serve its valuable purpose to assess the quality of research, its impact, and the environment it happens in, fairly and equitably for all and any institution, across all disciplines, and in any formats. Submissions should not be judged on their alignment, in the past, to government priorities that have only just recently come to the fore. We will be looking for reassurance on this important point of principle.

There are hard truths for the sector about the over-expansion of research and the persistence of unhelpful incentives that maintain financial pressures. Amongst GuildHE institutions are those pursuing core values, specialising effectively, and investing wisely to create research environments that are lean, impactful, and sustainable. We are ready to facilitate learning from their examples to achieve such aims more consistently across the sector. 

Harnessing technology and data-driven planning

The establishment of Skills England as the single authoritative voice on national and regional skills needs, and the commitment to upskill 7.5 million workers in AI and digital capability, represent major structural shifts. GuildHE members already pioneer responsible uses of technology in creative, agricultural, and health disciplines. We encourage the government to ensure that specialist providers are represented within Skills England’s advisory and data-governance structures so that the full breadth of the UK’s skills base informs national planning.

Skills and FE

We welcome the commitment to align the skills and employment systems to create clearer pathways for young people and adult skills. We also support the interventions outlined to inspire and connect people living with disability, SEND and socioeconomic disadvantage with educational and work-based experience and qualifications. 

Higher education institutions are central components to this vision of skills and employment as they already provide short courses, CPD, and apprenticeships. We have deep concerns about the implications of directing policy levers towards a narrower set of priority subjects at lower levels. In this space, we have concerns similar to those expressed above about regional collaboration. Smaller-scale, specialist and regionally-focused providers contribute significant benefits to coastal, rural and suburban areas and need to be fully considered when designing skills systems and processes.  

We welcome the ambition for two-thirds of young people to participate in higher-level learning by 2040, including 10% progressing through Level 4 and 5 routes. Many GuildHE members already deliver these qualifications through modular and applied learning models aligned with the Lifelong Learning Entitlement eligible subjects. Ensuring that these routes remain flexible and locally accessible will be critical to widening opportunity and meeting employer demand.

Student experience

We have long called for the re-introduction of maintenance grants for the poorest students, and for a review of the maintenance system so students like those who are care experienced get more financial support. We are, therefore, supportive of the government's direction of travel on this, though remain concerned about the viability of funding that through a new international student levy. We are an active member of the Mental Health Implementation Taskforce and will have our CEO sitting on the new Access and Participation Task and Finish Group. Funding to support the sector in addressing harassment, as well as government intervention on exploring the challenges with student accommodation are welcome.

The introduction of the Pathways to Work Guarantee for disabled people and those with health conditions is a welcome extension of the government’s social-mobility agenda. Specialist higher education providers play a distinctive role in creating inclusive environments for disabled, care-experienced and mature learners, and GuildHE will continue to advocate for adequate funding and support to sustain that work.

We strongly welcome the focus on enhancing the postgraduate student experience. We have advocated for a more comprehensive review of PGRS, particularly those on PhD provision which exists outside of traditional funding mechanisms, such as UKRI funded Doctoral Training partnerships. This vital group is the pipeline of researchers for the future, and they have not been adequately considered in the OfS’ work to date. This is a brilliant opportunity for us to highlight members’ existing work on inclusive, community-based approaches to student support and wellbeing, and provide insights into the experiences of all postgraduate students, regardless of how they are funded. Importantly, we can collectively illuminate the widening disparity between UKRI-funded PhD terms and conditions, and what is achievable for PGRs beyond those schemes, to support a more detailed understanding of the factors leading to the decline in PGR numbers.

GuildHE stands ready to work with government, Skills England, OfS, and regional partners to ensure that reforms to funding, regulation and skills planning truly unlock the power of specialisation while deepening further contributions from smaller-scale, specialist and distinctive institutions.

Read the government's Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper