Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to take steps to ensure that the Office for Students improves its engagement with providers.

The Office for Students (OfS) is responsible for its own approach to engagement with the higher education (HE) sector, and has an extensive provider engagement plan in place, which has recently been refreshed.

The OfS recently commissioned an external report on its communications and engagement approach, which highlighted a number of positive findings, and on which the OfS will take action to further improve its approach. The report is available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/f86acfa2-5c6e-4e6e-9af5-40dada342862/ofs_provider-engagement-research-report.pdf.

The OfS’s Chief Executive, Susan Lapworth, also set out publicly on 26 January 2023 how the OfS is refreshing its engagement with universities, colleges, and other HE providers.