The site of the Swindlestock Tavern in Oxford has been refitted to become a work café. The St Scholastica day riots started there, so hopefully everyone will get along in the nice work spaces. More information on the riots (and centuries of punishment): www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/mayors/gover...

We’ve not had as many of these pieces recently - when the headline says ‘Major university urges’ it’s actually an insight piece in a report by academics in a university. Of course, rather than engage with the interesting report on decolonisation, they fetch McGoven. www.sagepub.com/explore-our-...

OfS degree awarding powers news. It’s a happy new year for the Royal Northern College of Music which has been granted research degree powers from 5 January 2026 for four years.

Old Road is example of change and tradition in Headington. This is likely to be the last mummers play performed outside the Crown and Thistle. A coaching inn, but without that trade since the turnpike at the end of the 18th century, pub closed in 2011. Developments continue at the Old Rd Campus.

Sites of former HE regulatory bodies (a festive special). When created by the 1988 Act, PCFC opted for Bristol as its location; taking a lease on Northavon House on the Polytechnic campus. UFC moved to share the building. After the 1992 Act, they became HEFCE.

Former sites of parts of HEIs. This large pile of rubble was the Waynflete Building. On a prominent site, it was part of the expansion of Oxford. Without many fans, the inability to convert the rooms from the 1950s UGC standard to that expected in 2020s has required its demolition.

It’s now winter but interesting that everything that OfS had left hanging over to publish in ‘autumn’ has been switched to ‘spring’. The consultation on franchises says ‘autumn’ but we’ve been already told the outcome is coming in ‘spring’.

TEF data has come from OfS. It had been anticipated that this would be available in July (it was to have been used in the LLE expressions of interest). There’s no dashboard - so make your own from the CSV files.

UK rejoining the #Erasmus scheme is very welcome. The kind of deeper exchanges that it facilitated need long term commitments. There were advantages to #Turing scheme, but its annual bidding exercise was a problem. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

OfS degree awarding powers news. There’s a clutch of notes explaining that OfS has had to extend DAP orders as it couldn’t complete assessments because of the 9 month pause. Postponing these is just going to make it busier to complete all the assessments wanted.

Fairfield School of Business has been open for business today at their Sheffield Campus*. Although the logos of three universities appear on its signage, you can only take Ravensbourne Digital Marketing or Business Management degrees here. OfS’s investigation is of another partnership.

The end-of-year podcast is excellent (right to the very end). But again, we come back to the failings of franchising universities to protect the controlled reputational range of the sector in their deals with for-profit providers. Let it stop in 2026.

Former sites of HEIs: a series. Firth College opened here in 1879, part of a group of civic education buildings with the school board and technical school. Situated close to the town hall, the college moved out to Western Bank becoming @sheffielduni.bsky.social

Letter in @theguardian.com praises the way @universityofleeds.bsky.social has maintained and enhanced the suite of buildings Chamberlin, Powell and Bon designed for it. The Barbican should take note. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

While welcoming the intent of the OfS’s proposals on quality, @unialliance.bsky.social is concerned this may result in very high stakes quality assessment system that is unlikely to achieve burden reduction or continuous improvement. www.unialliance.ac.uk/2025/12/11/u...

OfS Degree Awarding Powers News. This is momentous: the OfS have revoked the Power to Award Degrees order to LTE Group Ltd just six months after they made it. The explanation is the order “contained a drafting error naming the incorrect entity” moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/08/02/a...

Update on the liquidation of former OfS registered provider: Applied Business Academy December 2025. There is no money left. There’s a bank liability of £1.1m, £3.1 tax with £12.2m unsecured creditors. Any money has gone on paying the insolvency expenses.

Outcomes based regulation based on data sounded plausible. However, the regulator’s struggles to produce it in a timely way is itself an issue. Before we got sector & provider degree outcomes at the same time - now this is pushed back to Spring 2026.

Is Southend the end of spatial planning for HE? @jimdickinson.bsky.social gives an excellent account of the flip flopping - sometimes some capital funding, sometimes some additional student numbers, but anaemic approaches after the full-blooded planning in the 1950s & 1960s.

It’s the start of the financial statements season - clearly the watchword is ‘challenging’ again. As ever, swings in student numbers have the biggest impact. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking out for information on franchises. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2024/12/02/f...

OfS degree awarding powers news. They’ve posted a helpful explanation of the extension of DAPs for S P Jain School of Management alongside a link to the amendment order. There have been a number of extensions to DAPs at different providers. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-provider...

There’s a growing sense that the geography of HE matters - say on local cold spots. Last year I looked at the opposite: clustering. Now I’ve visited a veritable hot spot - 6 different HE providers in one building. Updated blog: moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2024/10/16/a...

Excellent launch event for the CDBU Code of Ethical University Governance. Very important principles set out - starting with constructive criticism. There’s been a reminder today from OfS that providers need to meet the public interest governance principles.

Sites of former HEIs: a series. Woolwich Polytechnic opened in 1891, part of a wave of institutions geographically distributed around London. After mergers in the 1970s it became Thames Polytechnic. Becoming the University of Greenwich in 1992 it (mostly) left this site in 2001.

OfS has launched an investigation into the University of Greater Manchester. There is a mention of the police investigation which was announced in March. Normally OfS says when they started an operation investigation, but not on this press release. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...

Another university campus in a coastal community to close. Essex’s Southend campus will shut next summer. Students will move to Colchester - including those who are starting in Southend next month. www.essex.ac.uk/life/southen...

Questions at Education Select Committee on the reduction in international students expected after the levy and on whether the maintenance grants that will be introduced are sufficient. Answer that grants are a step forward and reintroduce the principle; they are not the only way to widen access.

Association to Erasmus is entirely sensible. The Turing Scheme is nice, but far too short-term. Erasmus facilitates deep engagement; a far better model. At a sector level, a surplus of students coming here is not a ‘deficit’ at all as we get the incoming fees. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

OfS Degree Awarding Powers news. An amendment order for ESCP Europe Business School - last year they got time-limited DAPs in Business & Management until December 2027. This is now extended until 2030.

The OfS consultation on the change of name of Greenwich is open until Wednesday. I’m not convinced by the wide geographical spread of the group name. But what form should the name of new multi-university groups take? More like tech or railway companies? moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/12/01/w...

A year ago I wondered whether universities should include far more information about franchises in their financial statements. OfS will require this, but from next year. I wonder what the accounts will say this year? moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2024/12/02/f...

One of my presumptions when reading old regulations is that each addition represents a new problem being dealt with. So, here are new paragraphs in the OfS Procedures for investigating allegations in the NSS where it may flag other regulatory concerns. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications...

A question for how HE works with devolution, is what is your local authority? The current question here is whether Swindon is in the Thames Valley. When this is resolved, the authority’s flagship university should promptly be renamed to match. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

OfS Degree Awarding Powers news. A new order for Blackpool & the Flyde College which comes into force on 12 December 2025 which is the day their 2022 (amendment) order expires. This order, for taught awards up to and including bachelor’s level, expires on 11 December 2028.

I understand the need to not vehemently object to the levy. I walked past two providers on the Marylebone Road yesterday wondering how a flat fee would pan out. One has an 11 month MBA with a £77950 fee, the other £19500 for 12 months. Each pays the same £925 levy (if OfS only counts them once)

Key focus at IHE conference this afternoon on the way HE contributes to regions. This needs to reflect the diversity of providers (without resorting to hierarchy). International students play an important part in all this - a challenge today.

It says here: “The international student levy will require providers to pay a flat fee of £925 per international student per year. It will be collected by the Office for Students” www.gov.uk/government/c...

Edward Peck being very clear that OfS regulation needs to address the issues of franchising at the IHE conference. Concerns about throwing out the baby with the bath water have to address there was a lot of bath water and some of it was very murky.

Skills are fundamental to the growth and opportunity missions of government says Jacqui Smith. The IHE conference is looking at the strategic partnership between the wider HE sector and government to deliver the positive vision of the Post-16 education and skills white paper.

There are lots of opportunities for UK HE. @viviennestern.bsky.social talking to the HESPA conference, starts with a triangle of sadness from @andywestwood.bsky.social but builds to list all the things the new policy landscape offers for the sector to contribute to.

Students sleeping out overnight in Oxford. Just to be at the front of the queue to get the pick of next year’s houses from one estate agent. A piece of craziness that the new renters reform act probably fails to curtail (but maybe move it to warmer months?)

The spoof Ladybird books have found their way into secondhand bookshops alongside the real thing. I’m not sure about the Student one (sometimes you can be too snarky) but it reveals that there was a depiction of a Birmingham honorary degree in the original series (Marie Skłodowska Curie)

There’s probably a bit of a lag between the announcement of TEDI-London becoming ASU London and the OfS register. It’s an interesting issue as whether the ‘U’ in ASU is a test of the use of ‘university’ in a provider name.

There’s a major conflict between collaboration and competition in the #HETransformation space. Key document from OfS today underlines that some providers are already out there eating other people’s lunch (in terms of recruiting students)

OfS degree awarding powers news. SP Jain London School of Management has a new DAPs order extending the time limit of their powers - had been to 30 November 2026, now extended to 30 August 2027. This order does not use a unique identifier for the provider (which has a companies house number).

Protests in Oxford today (among the Christmas shoppers). The biggest was for refugees welcome (with a tiny counter protest) with a pro-Palestine event outside the Oxford Union.

Plans for development at the end of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc - with Sovereign High-Performance Compute (HPC) infrastructure with research facilities. Next to Parkway Station, the plans include a new FE college. Cooling the supercomputer will heat other buildings. www.exoq.co.uk

It’s ten whole years since Government committed to remove barriers to new entrants as providers and to have a risk-based framework. There are students paying back loans for courses they were unable to complete because their colleges were (at best) negligent. wonkhe.com/blogs/studen...

Sites of former HEIs: a series. Grafton College was in Ilford House, Oxford Street. It ran an HND in business and had a BA validated, but allegations were made by #Panorama. It’s worth reading the QAA cause for concern report for similarities to cases 8 years on. www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/rep...

From the first minute to the last, the @wonkhe.bsky.social festival of higher education has been a fabulous event. So much thought and engagement about HE today and tomorrow; our challenges and opportunities.