Last month, the government told the Office for Students that it must prioritise monitoring the financial viability of higher education institutions.
The universities regulator has announced a £4 million tender to hire consultants for assessing financial risk at higher education institutions, amid sector-wide challenges.
According to the bid opened by the Office for Students (OfS) last week, contractors will help the watchdog ensure that students’ interests are protected during any changes or transitions, “including potential market exits.”
The duration of the contract is expected to last three years.
“The selected contractors will work with us to understand the financial position of individual higher education providers and the plans they have in place as they respond to and address the wider financial challenges, as discussed in our recent annual financial report,” the OfS spokesperson said.
“The financial sustainability of the sector continues to be a high organisational priority for the OfS,” the spokesperson added.
HE Funding Models Must Change
Monitoring the financial sustainability of universities by the OfS formed part of the government’s response to increasing financial challenges within the sector.
Susan Lapworth, the OfS’s chief executive, gave a stark warning at the time that an increasing number of institutions “will need to make significant changes to their funding model in the near future to avoid facing a material risk of closure.”
A review on the OfS—“Fit for Future”—published last month to coincide with the reorganisation of the watchdog’s priorities had heard higher education sector leaders expressed concerns over institutional finances. Report authors acknowledged these concerns, but told higher education institutions that “trade-offs will need to be made” for the sector to remain viable.
Fears of ‘Disorderly’ Closures
The OfS’s restructure comes after a report from the University of Warwick and consultancy firm Public First advised the government establish a £2.5 billion fund to support universities at risk of closure, arguing a proactive approach to risk management was needed in the face of so many higher education institutions experiencing financial difficulty.
Where a restructure is not possible and closure is the only outcome, report authors suggested a special administration regime could be introduced to manage institutions so they can have a “more orderly form of exit.”
The report said that if institutions were allowed to close “in a disorderly way,” there was a “risk of contagion” which could affect the whole HE sector. Authors warned lenders could become more cautious about lending to other institutions, as well as current students and applicants losing confidence in the sector.
However, authors did not propose a raising of tuition fees or preserving the status quo, rather that changes “need to be managed in a strategic way” amid recognition that the education sector will not always grow.
Reexamining Higher Education
Similarly, others have argued that post-18 education as a whole needs to be reorganised to better respond to skills demands in the labour market.
EDSK Director Tom Richmond had told The Epoch Times that the current higher education system is “heavily skewed towards three-year residential full-time undergraduate degrees, which is a hugely expensive and inflexible way of upskilling and reskilling both young people and adults.”
“It would be far cheaper for government and far better for learners if more flexible pathways were available to achieving the same goal of a more skilled workforce. This would mean rethinking how, when and where government invests in every part of tertiary education,” he added.
The Epoch Times contacted the Department for Education for comment.