Looking forward to the Festival of Higher Education next week - there’s so much happening in HE policy just now. In a corner, I will be provoking people on one of the most divisive issues: would student number caps be a good thing?

This confirms that Kent will join the Greenwich higher education corporation in the merger. Consultation on changing Greenwich’s legal name to London & South East (still sounds like a train company to me). www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications...

Can you buy degree awarding powers? When Spurgeon’s College ceased trading, they had interest in acquiring their newly extended DAPs. In this case it was agreed that you couldn’t just buy the DAPs - potentially a very sensible precedent. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/11/05/w...

Important provocation on the need for a whole university approach for supporting students. This can’t just be delegated to ‘student services’ but must be designed in across the whole academic experience. We need inclusive teaching and assessment, rather than reactive support. #ARC2025

Professor Evelyn Welch, VC @bristoluni.bsky.social, reminds us that universities, especially through our students, bring fresh hope. There’s lots of opportunities for more collaboration as part of an emerging tertiary system. This is something that @acregcouncil.bsky.social conference is all about.

Saint John Henry Newman proclaimed Doctor of the Universal Church in Rome today. In the 1850s his lectures were a challenge to the shifting vision of higher education.

It’s great to see this defence of a broad higher education system published by Policy Exchange on the day St John Henry Newman is recognised as a Doctor of the Church. Newman’s lectures are a challenge for HE policy in 2025, but not a guide. policyexchange.org.uk/publication/...

OfS degree awarding powers news. The University for the Creative Arts has been granted time-limited research degree awarding powers from 1 December 2025. Interestingly the OfS register, the “single authoritative reference about a provider’s regulatory status” says it’s had them since 1992.

OfS register news: a provider refused. OfS has listed the refusal to register Educational Training Centre (UK) ltd. It was refused in March, that was reported to the OfS Board in June and put on the website yesterday (?). Trading as ETC International College it offers HNDs.

Nice to see a briefing from Professor Edward Peck on the last OfS Board meeting, together with the papers from meetings from earlier in the year. There had been another pause in the publication of papers (still a lot are exempt from publication) www.officeforstudents.org.uk/about/how-we...

City University is in the news; but now it’s about tensions with students from another university. There’s been hours of violence and damage with students being held ‘captive’ on rival campuses. Classes at City are suspended until Thursday. www.dhakatribune.com/amp/banglade...

Good set of questions to the minister on the Post 16 Education & Skills white paper. For example, Baroness Alexander on excess profits in franchising what will DfE do “to mitigate the profiteering with public money and tackle the inadequate teaching”? hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-1...

After a testy urgent question, the statement on Post-16 education is underway. Three secretaries of state there for the new ambition of two thirds getting higher learning.

Government strategy for higher education; firmly linked to economic performance. Clear pathways to improve the number of students to science and maths. Stresses that institutions have a responsibility to protect freedom of speech. 1985. (Apologies to faculty registrar whose copy I have removed)

Three Labour MPs are asking the same question of DfE in Parliament today: “What steps her Department is taking to ensure that it meets its target of two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning?” Do we get the white paper today? commonsbusiness.parliament.uk/Document/980...

Now we can see the outcome data, it’s very clear that regulating some HE provision by outcome data hasn’t worked. A sub-set of franchised HE has become a get rich quick scheme and not for the students. DfE/OfS need their new rules in place ASAP. wonkhe.com/blogs/how-hi...

Always nice to visit our local university, today’s excuse is a PBFA book fair. However, the resolution not to buy anything did not last beyond the first stall with a cache of pamphlets once in the Board of Education library.

It isn’t a requirement that OfS announces when it starts an investigation, but it’s interesting that it has now announced that it started one over seven months ago. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-an...

It still feels like the first weeks of the academic year, but today the estate agents are putting up the posts to advertise student houses for next year.

OfS register news: one less provider. Spurgeon’s College, which went into administration on 1 August 2025, has asked to be voluntarily deregistered as it ‘no longer intends to deliver HE’. There are plenty of questions about how this happened - it only had £8k in the bank at the end.

The fallout from validating a for-profit provider that went bust is among the difficulties that Buckingham faces. Discussion of what price their degree awarding powers might fetch is a sign of the times. www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bucking...

Former sites of HEIs: a series. The Exeter Schools of Art and Science were founded in 1851 and formed part of the Albert Memorial complex of library, museum and venue for extension lectures. In 1922 the higher education part moved to Streatham and becomes the University College of the South West.

The OfS have published data on student outcomes from subcontractual partnerships. There’s some significant challenges in here, with some large provision being a way off the B3 blue line. www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-ana...

Sites of former HEIs: St Luke’s College of Education. The Exeter Diocesan Training School moved to this site in 1854. It joined the University of Exeter in 1978 which continues to use the site.

Sir Gavin Williamson has been giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 inquiry today. Much of the focus will be on children, but this module includes young people. Evidence from NUS and UCU is in the bundle published last week and is a reminder of the decisions taken about HE.

No comment on speculation about linking TEF to fees from the Secretary of State this morning. Also, not confirming the prospect that government would *not* support a university is financial crisis - the ‘no bail out’ question. #skynews

When you’re glad to not be able to see the nonsense behind the paywall. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Fantastic 25th anniversary congregation of the Burgon Society at The Charterhouse today. Prof Zellick talked about the continuity that academic dress represents in our universities. We also heard about people using bogus colleges in the early 20th century to get gowns & hoods they didn’t deserve.

Former sites of HEIs: a series. ‘Anglia Ruskin University London’ was at Charterhouse St - now just in a building at Poplar. Although billed as a branch, this is a collaborative partnership with LCA London.

OfS degree awarding powers news. There are extensions to the DAP orders for Hull College and Hult International Business School. Hult has an extended scope - after 1 December it can award in business computing, psychology, economics & politics as well as business management.

OfS degree awarding powers news. Walbrook Institute has been granted time-limited DAPs (without constraint to subject area) @walbrooklondon.bsky.social has kept London Institute of Business & Finance as a trading name

OfS Degree awarding powers news. The correct DAPs order to LTE Group has been added to the OfS page. It’s been added to the 2026 list (although the assessment report is in the 2025 list). Hopefully this is now the end of pickiness about this.

In two years, new UG students in England will have maintenance funds in a new flexible way. Universities could redesign their rules to make this work, especially where students have to catch up. We need to finish the policy thinking on LLE now, so there’s time to plan. wonkhe.com/blogs/for-st...

If you add up the last six years accounts at the London School of Commerce, they’ve made profits before tax of £151m on the course fee income of £331m passed on from other providers to teach their students. The owners have had £101m in dividends. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/a...

OfS Register News: a Leicestershire merger means there’s one fewer provider. On 1 August Loughborough College and SMB Group merged, on 3 October SMB were removed from the register.

Government can see HE provision as part of a strategy - the new Cumbria campus in Barrow is an excellent example. But, while it can do a lot with capital funding, it has few levers on recurrent funds: say to tweak student finance or underpin expensive courses. www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/10/07/j...

The judgement about Oxford Business College’s designation is worth a read. In April 2025 OBC had 5000 students, by May the name had come off the main building in Oxford. Where did 4700 students go: if they transferred where are they being taught? drive.google.com/file/d/1H8ZE...

This is very much my personal response to the OfS consultation on oversight of subcontractual arrangements which closes today. It’s a ‘Yes, but’ response, as I worry it might not be enough to deal with the worst examples. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2025/10/01/w...

There’s a very fine exposition of the regulatory complexity of bringing two degree awarding universities together here. Key question is whether a new corporate entity could be a university or whether, in reality, one university needs to dissolve and join the other?

Away from grants and targets, there’s some tricky HE regulation stuff still to work out. A degree-awarding provider went bust in a ‘disorderly’ way this summer. People have rallied around, but there’s not enough protection for students or for graduates. www.baptisttimes.co.uk/Articles/724...

Your reminder there’s a weekly window into scholarship on higher education from @cghe.bsky.social Today’s bleak session has been part of the Universities under Fire series. The conclusion is that the US HE system has been seriously destabilised. www.researchcghe.org

The government has announced the extension of the High Potential Individual visa for graduates of universities in global top 100. This remains a weird thing - here’s some of the problems about the line at 50, won’t get any better at 100. moremeansbetter.wordpress.com/2022/11/18/t...

There’s still a lot of questions about the LLE. Is ‘terms vs semesters’ a killer question? Surely students can’t still get their maintenance loans split into terms 33/33/33 and universities can’t possibly get their fees 25/25/50. So what’s the answer from DfE? wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

OfS degree awarding powers news: LTE Group has an order. The order for LTE Group Ltd remains on the statute book, but that company can’t use their mistakenly awarded powers as they are not an HE provider.

One thing government could do is give a boost to university centres. There’s a risk that regulating a few for-profit franchisees might make it harder for HE in FE. Meanwhile, university centres can reach cold spots & deliver regeneration at the same time. www.barnsleychronicle.com/article/3325...

Worth looking at this example in the light of the consultations about franchising of both DfE (which closed on 4 April) and OfS (which closes on 1 October). Would their proposed measures stop this alleged behaviour.

There’s nothing quite like the optimism of the start of an academic year and the most cheerful part of that is a fresher’s fair. (A nicely run enrolment is good, but doesn’t have quite the same buzz)

Here's a #HigherEducationPostcard of University College Buckland, which operated briefly in the 1960s and 1970s, offering courses leading to University of London degrees If you like this image, please retweet it - remember, BlueSky has #NoAlgorithm

After a high court ruling, Oxford Business College was re-registered for student loans in August. Now they want to sue because of loss of business. Important to note the ruling was about the process of de-registration not the allegations. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09...

The annual Convocation lecture at Leeds University was much more lively in the year that Dickie Bird gave it. It was a delight to host one of our honorary graduates.