Call for all universities to come under Charity Commission rules

Academic says universities regulated by Office for Students face laxer rules

Inconsistency in the regulation of charities has been “exacerbated” by the Office for Students’ approach to overseeing universities and could even lead to institutions not being required to report serious incidents such as abuse of students, a researcher has claimed.

Most universities are registered with and ultimately answerable to the Office for Students, which took over the regulatory duties of the now-defunct Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) when that agency was abolished. But a handful have their charitable status overseen instead by the Charity Commission, while still being regulated for other purposes by the OfS. In England, the University of Cambridge, Durham University and the University of Oxford are registered with the Charity Commission, while others are registered with the OfS.