Further government-initiated investigations into the quality of business and management courses by the Office for Students have found five “areas of concern” at Buckinghamshire New University, where assessors noted finding a student who “appeared asleep” during a class, and one at the University of Wolverhampton.
In May 2022, the OfS announced investigations into business and management courses at eight providers after a letter from ministers which said they “would expect a significant number of investigations to be initiated” at larger universities falling short of the regulator’s new B3 quality baselines, which cover student continuation and completion, and graduate progression to “professional employment”.
At Bucks New, the OfS’ team of assessors found five concerns, including that the university was “not consistently providing a high-quality academic experience”, as a result of factors such as teaching and learning resources being “not consistently up-to-date”.
Another concern was that “the cohort of students recruited by the university required high quality resources to support their independent learning”, but “the quality of the virtual learning environment (VLE) was not consistent”.
