Recently, the Office for Students (OfS) published its quality assessment report into business and management at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU).
The process which led to the report was far from straightforward. I’ve identified a number of ways in which these quality assessments can be improved so that in future they command greater support from providers.
Despite often trenchant criticism of OfS, I want to start from a premise that providers have a responsibility to help improve regulation of our sector.
The investigative process takes too long. The assessment was announced in May 2022, It references NSS data from as early as 2019-20, yet it is only in 2024 that we learned how the assessment team judges its significance. Where genuine concerns about quality exist, all involved need to work together to get these remedied speedily in the interests of students. The current process militates against the speed required.
