Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help improve the quality of higher education courses.

The department is committed to tackling low-quality higher education courses and ensuring that students and the taxpayer see returns on their investment.

The department is taking forward significant regulatory reform with the Office for Students (OfS), which has introduced a more rigorous and effective quality regime. This includes introducing inspections, as well as setting stringent minimum thresholds on student outcomes for the first time.

On 30 September 2022, the OfS announced a set of new minimum thresholds for student outcomes. For full-time undergraduate students studying their first degree, the thresholds are:

• 80% of students to continue into a second year of study.
• 75% of students to complete their qualification.
• 60% of students to go into professional employment or further study.

Universities and colleges that perform below these thresholds could face investigation to allow the OfS to understand the reasons for their performance. If a provider is found to be in breach of regulatory requirements, the OfS has the power to intervene and impose sanctions.