TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION: Question mark over Office for Students in English funding review

Description

With the Office for Students only due to become fully operational in April after the hard-fought passage of legislation last year, ministers are unlikely to want to revisit the issue of a new higher education regulator.

However, the review’s terms of reference, which call for a “joined-up post-18 education and training sector…delivering the skills our country needs”, might make the recommendation of a new overarching tertiary education regulator inevitable, said Andy Westwood, professor of government practice at the University of Manchester.

“If you want to look at developing the whole tertiary education sector, you have to look at the bodies overseeing it – you cannot just wish for a better tertiary system,” said Professor Westwood.