Private providers ‘vanishing without trace’

Half of the private providers in the UK that were offering higher education qualifications in 2014 are no longer doing so, according to research by the Centre for Global Higher Education.

According to a working paper published by the CGHE on 1 April, despite an increase in the overall number of private providers recorded from 732 in 2014 to 813 in 2017, some 50 per cent of private institutions identified as active in 2014—a total of 363—had ceased to operate as higher education providers by 2017.

Of these, 165 were listed as “dissolved” at Companies House, 128 were still in operation but not providing courses, while 70 had “simply vanished without trace”, the research found.