Whenever people raise the topic of regulation within the English higher education sector, the phrase ‘regulatory burden’ is never far from people’s lips. It was a repeated message in evidence submitted to the House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, including in the evidence from UUK. But what is regulatory burden and what can we do about it?
Regulatory burden covers all those activities that higher education providers must to do – and to show that they are doing – if they want to stay registered with the OfS. These activities will normally be in addition to what universities consider their ‘business as usual’ activities and the things they will be doing already to pursue their own strategy and mission. They are also activities they cannot avoid. Registration with the OfS, and therefore meeting all the OfS’s requirements, is needed if a university wants to sponsor international student visas, have degree awarding powers, hold a university title, and give their students access to the student loans system.
We commissioned Moorhouse Consulting to improve our understanding of the experience of regulatory burden among our members in England, all of which are registered with the OfS.
The OfS has made a public commitment to reducing unnecessary regulatory burden. In their 2022-2025 strategy it forms part of their work towards ‘enabling regulation’, and already there has been a reduction in enhanced monitoring requirements and in their data and information requests. In its 2023-24 business plan it has set out plans to include more consideration of burden when consulting on future changes to the regulatory framework and to consider whether all its current regulation remains necessary.
