Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the financial situation of Higher Education institutions.

Higher education (HE) providers are independent from government and as such are responsible for managing their finances and ensuring their business models provide long-term sustainability.

However, this government is committed to helping put the HE sector on a secure financial footing so that it can face the challenges of the next decade. Our decision to raise tuition fees annually in line with inflation, alongside refocusing the Office for Students (OfS) on monitoring the sector’s financial health, demonstrates this commitment.

Although the OfS is responsible for monitoring the sector’s financial sustainability, the government has a strong interest in understanding the sector’s level of risk. My department continues to engage closely with the OfS, other government departments and sector representative groups, as well as individual providers, to better understand the changing financial landscape.