Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to use the powers in clauses 2 and 4 of the Data (Use and Access) Bill to require the Student Loans Company to collect data on the courses its customer attended when incurring their student debt and their subsequent career progression in order (1) to assess the long-term value of those courses, (2) to propose course improvements, and (3) to enable universities to improve the quality of the data they provide to prospective students about likely career destinations and progression for students of each course.

The government has no plans to ask the Student Loans Company for data about its customers for these purposes.

The Office for Students (OfS) uses Graduate Outcomes survey data to monitor providers’ compliance with registration condition B3, which stipulates that at least 60% of a providers’ students must progress into professional employment or further study within 15 months of graduating. Students can see how providers are performing against this target on the OfS's website.

The OfS considers B3 and National Student Survey (NSS) data alongside submissions from providers and students to award ratings of Gold, Silver or Bronze to providers which take part in its Teaching Excellence Framework.

Students can also find information about different courses on the Discover Uni website, which is the official source of information about higher education across the UK and uses the NSS, Graduate Outcomes survey and Longitudinal Education Outcomes data.