The Office for Students (OfS) will take over as England’s higher education quality assessment body following the withdrawal of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the government has confirmed.
In a written statement to Parliament published on 30 March, universities minister Robert Halfon confirmed that England’s higher education watchdog would take the quality scrutiny role on an interim basis from 1 April “pending further consideration of future arrangements”.
The decision follows the QAA’s announcement in July 2022 that it wished to stop assessing higher education providers in England amid concerns over non-compliance with European standards in the new regulatory approach.
The current regulatory approach in England – which does not require the QAA to publish all of its designated quality body (DQB) reports, include students on review teams or have a cyclical review process – puts it at odds with standard international practice, set out in the European Standards and Guidelines.
