2026合理监管：英国高等教育行业财务可持续性与抗风险能力建设路径报告

Tom Richmond About the author Tom Richmond is an education policy analyst and host of the ‘Inside Your Ed’ After starting his career as a secondary school teacher, he spent almost a decadeworking in policy development and research. This included working in twothink tanks and later advising two Secretaries of State and ministerial teams From 2019 to 2024 he was the director of EDSK – a think tank that designedsolutions to policy problems across the education system including schools, Executive summary There is so much good work being done by so many higher education providersand academics to deliver a great experience to their students, yet this reportoutlines a range of evidence showing that some providers have taken too many Given the pivotal role of higher education in our society and economy, it islegitimate for the Government to set new boundaries that aim to curtail excessiverisk-taking while leaving the autonomy of many providers largely (if not entirely)intact. Consequently, this report describes a ‘toolkit’ of eight measures thatthe Government could implement to create a more financially sustainable and Protecting society’s interests 1.Constraining provider growth:providers would be limited to 5 per cent 2.Reducing the reliance on international students:the International StudentLevy should only be charged on fees above the maximum tuition fee loan 3.Restrictions on franchising arrangements:providers would requiregovernment approval for any franchising deal (including existing ones) and 4.Financial buffers to protect against losses:providers would be requiredto hold ‘capital buffers’, adhere to limits on debt levels and meet minimum Protecting students’ interests 5.A ‘teaching resource cap’ on the number of undergraduates that can berecruited:providers would be barred from accepting more undergraduates 6.Ensuring providers have enough space for the students they enrol:providerswould be made responsible for ensuring that any student who requiresaccommodation can secure a suitable living space within a very short travel 7.Transparency over the maximum number of students on every course:atthe start of each application cycle, providers would be required to publish 8.Standardised degree classifications for providers:all providers would belimited to awarding 15 per cent of classifications as a ‘First’, 35 per cent of Introduction For the state itself, higher education has become a crucial asset. It mustrecognise what it will gain from ensuring the wellbeing of higher education.In return, as it has done in the past, higher education as a whole must Ron Dearing’s landmark report on higher education (‘the Dearing Report’),published shortly after the 1997 General Election, is perhaps best known forlaying the groundwork for the incoming Labour Government’s decision tointroduce tuition fees in 1998 (albeit not initially in the way that Dearing had This notion of higher education providers, especially universities, acting asautonomous institutions is still very much in evidence today. However, theDearing Report stressed this position as free-standing institutions did notmean that providers should think of themselves in isolation from the societyin which they operate, not least because ‘collectively and individually, theseinstitutions are becoming ever more central to the economic wellbeing of In May 2025, the Office for Students (OfS) – the regulator of higher education inEngland – published its latest report on the financial sustainability of providers. ‘We are seeing the third consecutive annual decline in the sector’s finances’; ‘[S]ignificantly more providers than before reported an income and ‘The outlook for 2024-25 has deteriorated since last year’s forecasts’; ‘[T]he sector reported a decline in surplus, operating cash flow and net ‘[T]he sector’s cash holding fell by 9.8 per cent [from 2022-23 to 2023-24]’. The OfS’ most recent annual report – published in July 2025 – added that fiveproviders are currently required to comply with a ‘Student Protection Direction’,meaning that ‘the OfS reasonably considers there to be a material risk that a Against this gloomy backdrop, it is important to note that the OfS has asurprisingly limited role in ensuring that institutions do not collapse. Theregulator has ‘a statutory duty to monitor the financial sustainability of registeredhigher education providers in England, yet ‘monitoring’ falls a long way short ofpreventing or addressing any problems.5The reason for this constrained role isthat, although registered providers ‘must demonstrate that they are financiallyviable in the short term (up to three years in the future) and sustainable into From the sector’s perspective, the solution to their financial woes isstraightforward. A recent report from Universities UK claimed that ‘universitieslose money teaching UK students – and that deficit has grown year on year’,and ‘we have to halt that’. The report added that ‘if investment in teaching