Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the delays at the Office for Students in registering new higher education providers on encouraging new higher education providers to enter the market.

When deciding whether a provider should be registered, the Office for Students (OfS) must carefully assess the provider against the strict criteria. To do this the OfS requires the provider to supply it with the relevant information upon applying. Where information is missing or insufficient, the time to process the application may be delayed until such information is provided.

The OfS is careful to make sure the criteria is met prior to registering new providers to ensure that only providers capable of providing high quality courses, which are of value to both students and the tax-payer, are registered.

The newly published OfS guidance on registration makes it clear what information is required from providers and that failure to provide this information may lead to delays or not being approved.

The new guidance can be found at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/regulation/registration-with-the-ofs-a-guide/.