Josh Fleming, the OfS’s director of strategy and delivery, said: “Our proposed new strategy sharpens the OfS’s focus on the quality of higher education and the financial resilience of the sector.
The Office for Students (OfS) already charges smaller institutions such as the Royal College of Music up to 20 times more for each student in registration fees than it charges larger universities, with vice-chancellors fearing that the costs of meeting the regulator’s demands will continue to balloon.
An independent review last year by Sir David Behan – later appointed as the OfS’s interim chair by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson – echoed vice-chancellors’ concerns over the “disproportionate” fee structure that made OfS membership far cheaper by student for larger providers.
Since December the OfS has suspended work on vetting new providers in order to concentrate on financial oversight, a move derided by the former universities minister Jo Johnson, who said the OfS “should be able to walk and chew gum”.
Vivienne Stern, UUK’s chief executive, said: “The regulator should bear in mind that increasing regulatory burden means increasing the amount of time and money that universities have to spend on regulatory demands, rather than frontline teaching and support for students.
