Asked by: Lord Stevens of Birmingham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government which scientific criteria they apply in deciding whether an educational institution can describe itself as a Health Sciences University; whether these criteria could apply to an institution teaching homeopathy and other alternative therapies; and which peer-reviewed research or externally-assessed teaching the Office for Students relied upon in deciding to allow the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic and University College of Osteopathy to rebrand themselves as the Health Sciences University.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
When a provider requests to change its name, a strict criteria and assessment process is followed. The provider will already have undergone considerable scrutiny when being awarded Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs), including input from quality experts, drawn from the sector, to test the provider against multiple criteria. Indefinite DAP’s status is the main eligibility test for providers to be able to go through the title process.
In this instance, the provider gained degree awarding powers in 2016 and so was able to apply for university title as per the rules set out in the Office for Students’ (OfS) ‘Regulatory advice 13: how to apply for university college and university title’, which is attached and also available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/regulatory-advice-13-how-to-apply-for-university-college-and-university-title/#:~:text=and%20university%20title-,Regulatory%20advice%2013%3A%20How%20to%20apply%20for%20university%20college%20and,as%20part%20of%20their%20name.
The department and the OfS were notified in September 2023 regarding the provider changing its name. When considering the proposed new name for a provider, the OfS must have due regard to the need to avoid names that are, or may be, confusing. In addition, in the instance of the newly named Health Sciences University, the OfS operated an open consultation on the proposed name. This ran from 22 February 2024 to 21 March 2024, and determined the regulator's final decision. The OfS approach is set out in their case report ‘Approval of proposed new name for AECC University College - Office for Students’, which is attached and can also be found at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/approval-of-proposed-new-name-for-aecc-university-college/.
In addition to the OfS process, regulations brought into force under the Companies Act 2006 means that the department has responsibility for confirming that it has no objection to the use of the sensitive word ‘university’ in a business name. The OfS published approval of the proposed new name from ‘AECC University College' to 'Health Sciences University’ in July 2024. The department then considered the request from the provider to change its name to ‘Health Sciences University’ and was satisfied that the use of the word ‘university’ was appropriate in this context. The department had no objection to the use of the term ‘university’ in the proposed business name ‘Health Sciences University’ and issued the provider with a non-objection letter on 18 July 2024.
During this consultation the OfS did not receive any responses questioning the merit of the subject area(s) of the provider.
Asked by: Lord Stevens of Birmingham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the speech by the Minister for Higher and Further Education on 24 February regarding their response to Dr Philip Augar's Review of Post-18 Education and Funding, published in May 2019, what proportion of their modelled overall reduction in future costs to taxpayers from student loans arises from (1) the new proposals themselves, (2) changes to the discount rate, or (3) other factors.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The fiscal impacts of the student loan reforms announced on Thursday 24 February 2022 are detailed in full in the equality impact analysis (EIA) published alongside the announcement, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
Updates to the Resource, Accounting, and Budgeting (RAB) charge, that result from the change to the discount rate, announced by the government on 13 December 2021, are provided in Annex B of the EIA linked to above. The proportion of loan outlay issued is not expected to be repaid in present terms. Forecasts of the savings that will result from the reforms, set out in Tables 11 and 12 of the EIA, use the updated RAB as a baseline, meaning the discount rate change does not account for any of these savings.
The forecast savings are wholly attributable to the two-year tuition fee freeze and changes to student loan repayment terms, as set out on page 13 of the higher education policy statement & reform consultation, and do not incorporate other elements of the reform package. The consultation is attached.
The savings do include the changes to the Plan 2 repayment threshold for 2022/23 financial year, announced on 28 January 2022, prior to the announcement of the whole reform package.