OfS registration reopens in August ahead of franchise provider deadline

The OfS, the independent regulator of higher education in England, recently announced it will accept new registration applications for higher education providers from 28 August following an eight-month hiatus. The regulator, which suspended registrations in December 2024 over financial sustainability concerns, said it will give priority to institutions with existing applications that have been on hold since last year.

This development follows plans recently unveiled by the Department for Education (DfE) to bring greater oversight over higher education franchisees by bringing them under the scope of the OfS.

Under the new proposals, it is anticipated that franchised providers with 300 students or more will be required to register with the OfS to ensure their courses are designated for student finance. The move, designed to bring greater regulatory oversight and assurance over public money invested in franchising providers, follows a consultation carried out by the DfE that closed in April. According to the consultation paper (32-page / 570KB), the new regulations will come into force in April 2026.

The first decisions about course designation for student finance will be made in September 2027 for implementation in the 2028-29 academic year. Franchisee delivery partners will need to seek registration with the OfS over the next 12-18 months.

There are several proposed exemptions to this requirement, including state-funded schools, the statutory further education sector, NHS trusts, police and crime commissioners and local authorities, which are already subject to regulatory oversight by government bodies. Franchised providers with 300 or more students that wish to deliver courses that are not designated for student finance will be able to continue to do so without any further requirement to register with the OfS.

According to the government, more than half of 341 franchised institutions are currently unregistered with the OfS. In 2024, an investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed that fraud at franchised providers cost the public purse around £2 million in 2022-23. The NAO identified “weaknesses in the control framework” that contributed to several instances of fraud and abuse at franchised providers since early 2022.

However, a recent report by The Post-18 Project, an initiative aimed at shaping policy for universities and colleges, says the proposals “represent a fundamentally flawed approach that misunderstands both the scale and nature of the problem” afflicting the higher education sector. In particular, the report’s author says the current proposals could still create geographic and other loopholes for rogue operators to fall through the cracks and fails to give universities any real powers over their financial arrangements.

Commenting on the recent developments, Rachel Soundy, corporate and education specialist at Pinsent Masons, said: “The regulation of franchise partners in higher education is long overdue but the proposed reforms only skim the surface to tackle rogue players – leaving the opportunity for certain providers to step around the proposals. It is expected that DfE and OfS guidance will be issued which will seek to further tighten the regulation of such providers.”

Gayle Ditchburn, higher education expert at Pinsent Masons, said it is now critical for affected franchise delivery partners to take active steps to prepare for their registrations with the OfS to ensure they do not lose out on vital funding. “This is a reputational and financial risk for both the franchise delivery partner and the university franchisor,” she said.

“Universities partnering with franchise delivery partners to deliver their programmes should be working with their partners to support their registration journeys as their failure to register with the OfS will result in the franchised courses no longer being designated for student finance – the impact of which will severely impact student enrolment.”