Concerns raised over government plans for minimum standards

Worries that universities could be “disincentivised and discouraged” from access work

Higher education leaders have warned that setting minimum baselines on quality for universities could contradict the government’s plan for flexible provision and student loans.

In the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, the government backed the Office for Students’ aim to set minimum baselines on quality. In the bill, the government said the OfS “may, from time to time, determine and publish a minimum level in relation to a measure of student outcomes which all institutions to whom the measure is applicable are expected to meet”.