Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many higher education providers have offered validation services, and (2) how many institutions have been validated, in each of the last five years.

The Office for Students (OfS) holds data on validation arrangements although this is dependent on the reliability of data submitted to the Higher Education Statistics Agency and Individual Learner Record to remain data collections. Previous inaccuracies in the data and other changes in the sector such as mergers between providers and providers leaving the higher education sector means that it is not possible to provide meaningful information over a 5- year period.

In 2020/21 the OfS reports that:

• 92 OfS-registered providers have been identified as the awarding body for other providers’ students, i.e. appeared to be offering validation services in 2020/21.
• 310 OfS-registered providers identify another entity as the awarding body for some or all of their students i.e. appear to be utilising validation services in 2020/21.

It should be noted that providers may start and exit validation arrangements as they see fit and are free to negotiate these contracts between themselves. As a result, the OfS cannot accurately determine precisely how many higher education providers have offered validation services, only how many have current validation arrangements in 2020/21.