Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what mechanisms are in place to support and safeguard a student if the private college they attend goes into liquidation.

Private providers of higher education must meet robust financial sustainability standards in order to be designated for student support. Providers that have not been trading for three years must submit a plan to ensure that students can achieve their academic outcomes if they are unable to fully deliver their course.

In cases of significant financial failure where a private provider goes into administration, the department may grant temporary designation to the new owners to protect the student interest and to allow students to complete their studies.

The UK quality code for higher education sets out the responsibility of degree awarding bodies when providers delivering their courses become insolvent, cease trading or the agreement is terminated. Degree awarding bodies ensure that adequate contingency plans are in place against these possibilities, but where they occur, a range of solutions may be possible for ensuring that students who wish to complete their course can do so.

The Higher Education and Research Bill will ensure that in future the Office for Students (OfS) has the necessary powers to require student protection plans are in place for all approved and approved (fee cap) providers, and to intervene if there are signs that quality in any HE institution is failing. The OfS will take a ‘risk based’ approach to student protection, ensuring that the level of protection required in the plan is proportionate to each provider. It is intended that the OfS will monitor the financial health of institutions, alongside other potential ‘triggers’, and will require student protection measures to be implemented whenever there is a risk to student’s continuity of study. We expect these student protection plans to be available to all students, and to set out the protections students can expect if a course closes, or in the rare instance where an institution decides to exit the market.