‘Marketing gloss’ hampers university access plans, says OfS

Some of the access and participation plans submitted to the Office for Students read more like marketing material than institutional strategies—and they vary in how “honest” they are about outreach, it has been claimed.

Jessica Woodsford, head of programmes at the Office for Students, works in the regulator’s access and participation directorate. She said that the plans submitted by universities “varied in terms of how thorough they were and in terms of how honest they were”.

Universities are required to submit an access and participation plan, and have it approved by the OfS, in order to register with the regulator and thus make their students eligible for tuition fee loans.