The new condition of registration– due to start on March 31– is created to protect trainees studying under subcontractual arrangements, which have come under fire in the media following reports that fake students are registering onto franchised university courses in the UK to declare trainee loans “with no intent of paying it back”.
Institutions that have or expect to have 100 or more students registered on subcontractual programs in a provided scholastic year will be required to publish particular information on such programs. For example, they will have to reveal the percentage of tuition fees they maintain from franchised programs, in addition to offering a their “tactical reasoning” for dealing with subcontractors on particular programs.
They will also need to show how they are determining and addressing risks to students and the taxpayer from utilizing subcontractors– suggesting thhat they will need to keep a record of how they manage such partnerships.
It comes as the Office for Trainees (OfS) continues with plans to punish rogue university franchising arrangements, which it sought advice from on earlier this year.
Under subcontractual arrangements, universities or colleges– known as a lead supplier– agreements another organisation, in some cases known as a delivery service provider, to deliver all or part of a program on its behalf.
The OfS said that it was warning of the dangers associated with “poor oversight” of a few of these courses given the “fast expansion” of these collaborations in recent years.
Our view remains that high quality and well-managed subcontractual partnerships can use benefits to students
Philippa Pickford, OfS
Director of Guideline at the OfS, Philippa Pickford, highlighted that the organisation has actually been raising issues over “bad practices” in some subcontractual arrangements for some time and swore that the OfS would stay “watchful” to the risks it stated were associated with such collaborations.
“These new requirements — together with the Department for Education’s (DfE) upcoming requirement for delivery partners with at least 300 students to register with the OfS — will help safeguard trainees’ experience and outcomes, while assuring taxpayers that public financing is being utilized appropriately,” she stated.
“Our view remains that high quality and well-managed subcontractual collaborations can provide benefits to students. It’s right that lead service providers are completely responsible for the provision of education to students registered with them and we’re confident that universities that currently do this well will discover our requirements straightforward.”
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