Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have in place to ensure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds who attend private colleges receive the best quality of education and support.

Following the passage of the Higher Education and Research Act (HERA), the Office for Students (OfS) will be established formally in January 2018. It will provide, for the first time, a single regulator for higher education (HE) providers regardless of how they are funded. The OfS will have powers to assess the quality of, and standards applied to, all English HE provision. Quality will be built into every stage of the new regulatory system, the details of which are currently being consulted on. There will continue to be tough and rigorous tests for providers who want to enter the system and enable students from all backgrounds to receive funding.

Under the OfS, all HE providers in receipt of public funding will have to demonstrate their commitment to widening participation. They will be required to have either an access and participation plan approved by the OfS (for those in the “Approved (fee cap)” category of registration wishing to charge higher level tuition fees), or an access and participation statement (for those in the “Approved (fee cap)” category only charging fees at the basic level).