The UK government has made a to its Higher Education and Research Bill following fierce opposition from peers in the House of Lords, although most key elements of its drive to create a market via a powerful new regulator remain in place.

Jo Johnson, the universities minister, unveiled the changes in a speech to vice-chancellors at Universities UK on 24 February, ahead of the bill¡¯s report stage in the House of Lords on 6 March. The government appears to have feared that, without amendments, the legislation was unlikely to make it through the Lords, where it does not have a majority.

Perhaps seeking to deflect attention from the raft of amendments, the government had earlier briefed to the media an announcement about altering the bill to allow the creation of two-year ¡°fast-track¡± degrees, for which institutions could charge higher tuition fees of ?13,000 a year.

The government had tabled, with Labour Lords higher education spokesman Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, an amendment to ensure that England¡¯s new regulator, the Office for Students, must ¡°have regard to institutional autonomy in everything it does¡±, said Mr Johnson. This, he added, ¡°should replace¡± the amendment successfully inserted at the opening of the bill by Labour, Liberal Democrat and cross-bench critics in the Lords, which defined universities in a way that could have limited the extension of university title to new providers.

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Another amendment, he continued, would ensure that the academic standards against which universities were judged will be ¡°determined by¡± the higher education sector, reflecting UUK¡¯s concerns about the bill in effect giving the government a role in standards.

Mr Johnson said that the OfS¡¯ powers to revoke degree-awarding powers and university title ¡°as a last resort¡± would be clarified in the bill, as being available only in relation to ¡°specific conditions¡± such as ¡°serious quality concerns¡±.

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He said that another change to the bill clarifies that OfS powers to ¡°amend¡± a university¡¯s Royal Charter when revoking degree-awarding powers ¡°could not be used to revoke that Royal Charter in full¡±.

On the government¡¯s teaching excellence framework to measure teaching quality, Mr Johnson said that the ¡°trial year¡± would be used as a ¡°genuine lessons-learned exercise¡±.

He said that the government ¡°will be reviewing¡­the balance between metrics and provider submissions, and the number of names of the ratings¡±. Universities had voiced concerns about plans to rate them ¡°gold¡±, ¡°silver¡± and ¡°bronze¡±.

Mr Johnson added that developing the TEF to subject level was ¡°complex¡±, so the pilot phase of subject-level TEF would be extended by a year, meaning assessments would start in ¡°TEF year five¡±.

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On the bill¡¯s plans for the OfS to take over from the Privy Council the regime for entry of new providers, which critics fear could usher poor-quality for-profit providers, Mr Johnson said that an amendment would ensure that the regulator ¡°must take expert advice into account when awarding, varying or revoking degree-awarding powers¡±.

On the creation of UK Research and Innovation to oversee research, the minister said that an amendment would ensure that future governments must have regard to the Haldane principle ¨C which protects research funding decisions from political interference ¨C when making grants or directing UKRI.

Dame Julia Goodfellow, UUK president and University of Kent vice-chancellor, called the amendments a ¡°very positive step¡± that shows that ¡°the government has listened to the concerns of the higher education sector around academic standards and the independence of universities¡±.

john.morgan@tesglobal.com