Ministers have confirmed plans to cap the number of students who can enrol on what they called “rip-off” courses at English universities, despite concerns that the move will disproportionately penalise students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In its long-awaited response to the higher education reform consultation, which was issued in February 2022, the Westminster government said it would ask the sector regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), “to limit the number of students universities can recruit onto courses that are failing to deliver good outcomes”.
As reported previously by Times Higher Education, this is thought to be a reference to the OfS’ controversial B3 condition on quality, which sets numerical baselines for institutions and courses to meet, on student continuation and completion rates and on graduate employment, a metric that requires six in 10 full-time first-degree students to go into “professional” employment or further study.
According to the OfS’ annual report, the most recent figures showed that 5.2 per cent of all providers were below baseline on continuation, 6.7 per cent below baseline on completion, and 1.6 per cent below baseline on employment progression, though that was up from 0.7 per cent two years earlier.
