Oversight of degree awarding powers to be transferred from Privy Council to HEFCE
The UK government has set out its plans for transforming the Higher Education Funding Council for England into the lead regulatory body for HEIs in England. The plans include giving HEFCE more powers to promote competition between universities and powers to levy fines if institutions flout the conditions needed to make them eligible for student loans and grants.
The proposals were published in a technical consultation document on 4 August by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills following June’s white paper on HEI reform. However, two of its recommendations are not in the white paper. These are the transfer of responsibility for the granting and renewal of degree-awarding powers from the Privy Council to HEFCE; and a recommendation that HEFCE work closely with the Office of Fair Trading to monitor anti-competitive practises such as price-fixing.
According to the BIS document, HEFCE’s job will be to contribute to managing overall government expenditure by ensuring that loans and grants are accounted for properly and used in such way as to promote the interests of students as what it calls “consumers”. BIS recommends that students should be paid compensation if institutions come up short.
The consultation document describes the process and criteria that new institutions will need to meet if they want to award degrees or use the “university” title. An institution will need a minimum of 1,000 students to be called a university. This figure has been lowered from the current minimum of 4,000 students.
In addition, organisations that do no teaching, such as commercial publishers or exam boards, will also be allowed to apply for degree awarding powers, as will institutions that offer undergraduate degrees in a single subject, such as business. These institutions, which BIS calls “alternative providers”, will have access to publicly-supported loans, while those that are non-profit-making will be able to access government-backed grants.
HEFCE’s proposed new sanctions include the ability to “name and shame” education providers who fail to meet required standards and, as a last resort, to remove their ability to award taught and research degrees.
In a statement published shortly after the release of the BIS document, Alan Langlands, HEFCE’s chief executive, welcomed the proposals: “This is a crucial element in respecting the principles of institutional autonomy and academic freedom,” he said. “Governors, vice-chancellors and principals are, and must continue to be, the best judges of the way forward for their institutions and students. HEFCE will intervene only where necessary to ensure a fair and consistent approach to quality, access, information and financial sustainability.”
Each institution will need to sign a legally binding agreement with HEFCE. This will replace the general “financial memorandum” under which universities currently operate.
The consultation closes on 27 October 2011.