Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) metrics, and (2) other measures, are used by (a) the Office for Students, and (b) the Quality Assurance Agency, to assess the performance of individual further education colleges for quality assurance purposes.

The higher education (HE) provision of further education colleges, which are registered with the Office for Students (OfS), is subject to the same quality assurance arrangements as that of all other registered HE providers.

The OfS monitors and regulates quality outcomes as described in its regulatory framework and in its conditions of registration. The metrics used by the OfS to assess the quality of HE provision relates to student continuation and completion rates, degree, and other outcomes. This includes differential outcomes for students with different characteristics and progression to professional and managerial jobs and postgraduate study.

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), as the designated quality body under section 27 and Schedule 4 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, undertakes quality and standards reviews to enable the OfS to assess compliance with registration conditions. In particular, the QAA assesses whether providers are delivering well designed courses that provide a high-quality academic experience and whether students are supported, from admission through to completion, to succeed in, and benefit from, HE.

The OfS is currently carrying out a three-stage consultation on its overall regulatory approach to quality and standards which aims to introduce a more rigorous quality regime.