Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of consumer protections in place for higher education students.

Higher education providers have obligations under consumer law. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has produced advice on consumer protection law for UK higher education providers. This sets out that providers should give students the information they need to make informed decisions before applying; clear and transparent terms and conditions and information about complaints process, which must be fair and transparent.

The regulatory framework for the Office for Students (OfS) includes as a registration condition that providers ‘must demonstrate that in developing and implementing its policies, procedures and terms and conditions it has given due regard to relevant guidance, such as the CMA’s, about how to comply with consumer protection law’.

In its ministerial guidance to the OfS, government has asked the OfS to go further and take steps to assess the provision of information by providers to students; to assess the availability of impartial advice and support for students; and drive communications actively to raise awareness among students of their rights as consumers. The guidance can be found on the OfS website at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/1044/strategicguidancetotheofs.pdf.