Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has made an estimate of the (a) value of property portfolios owned by universities and (b) revenue universities have derived from property holdings in 2017-18.

English higher education providers are autonomous institutions and their institutional autonomy is protected by the Higher Education and Research Act (2017). Therefore, the government has not made an estimate of the value of property portfolios owned by universities or the revenue universities have derived from property holdings in 2017-2018, because institutions are free to manage their financial affairs.

In the new higher education regulatory framework, the Office for Students (OfS) has responsibilities to monitor and assess the financial sustainability of registered providers in England that are publicly funded. Providers that receive grant money are currently subject to terms and conditions that include financial sustainability. The OfS can also use registration conditions to take into account the individual financial circumstances of each registered provider consistently with its regulatory functions.