Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that higher education delivers value for money.

The department remains determined that the higher education (HE) system should deliver for our economy, for universities, and for students

HE should be a pathway to opportunity for all students. Our economy needs graduates to go on to highly skilled and well-paid employment, and both students and the taxpayer deserve a good return on their significant investment in HE.

The government will continue to work with the Office for Students (OfS), empowering it to hold HE providers to account for the quality of students’ experiences and the outcomes they achieve. The department will support it to implement a new, more integrated approach to quality assessment, which will expand the existing Teaching Excellence Framework and focus on driving continuous improvement at every provider. Ensuring students from all backgrounds receive value for money is one of the OfS's four key regulatory objectives. In the future, HE providers will only be able to charge the maximum fee cap if they meet a higher quality threshold, as announced in the Post-16 Education and Skills strategy.