When the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) announced on January 10th that it was to open an investigation into student loans issued to students studying at franchised providers, it was obvious that something was up.
Back in 2018, it had warned that serious allegations of fraudulent practices at alternative providers showed that the Department for Education (DfE) had not done enough to close down opportunities to “play the system”.
It also argued that the then new Office for Students (OfS) should learn those lessons when it took over responsibility for the alternative provider sector from DfE.
Now we know why the PAC is so concerned.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has published its Investigation into student finance for study at franchised higher education providers. We’ve heard hints of this from OfS – but the essence is that since early 2022, it turns out that the Student Loans Company (SLC) and OfS have detected several instances of potential fraud and abuse at franchised providers.
