Alongside the Russell Group, HE mission groups including University Alliance, MillionPlus and GuildHE have joined forces to call for a parliamentary inquiry into the Office for Students.
The four mission groups have written to Robin Walker MP, Chair of the Education Select Committee, urging him to launch an inquiry that will assess whether the regulator has succeeded in the role parliament has envisaged for it in the Higher Education Research Act (2017); whether it has the confidence of the sector in the way it carries out its regulator duties, how it has supported students and how it performs relative to standards set out in the Regulators' Code.
Dr Tim Bradshaw, Chief Executive of the Russell Group, said:
"No one in the higher education sector disputes the need for, and importance of proportionate, evidence based regulation. However, as a sector we are becoming increasingly concerned at the levels of bureaucracy associated with the Office for Students and whether it is operating – or being allowed to operate - in a genuinely independent way.
