In the plans for a shake-up of the regulatory regime governing higher education, all providers, regardless of their status, would be subject to the same oversight if they have loan-funded students.

The new regime is likely to include a transformed, but not renamed, Higher Education Funding Council for England, which would become a ¡°consumer champion¡± with beefed-up powers to act on concerns raised by other bodies such as the Quality Assurance Agency.

Meanwhile, the QAA would move towards a more ¡°risk-based¡± approach to inspection that makes it easier for student complaints to trigger an audit, as well as reducing the burden for universities with a good track record.

David Willetts, the universities and science minister, said the ¡°conceptual shift¡± was that the whole framework of regulation needed to focus on ¡°the student in receipt of the loan, rather than a group of institutions in receipt of Hefce grant¡±.

É«ºÐÖ±²¥

He said: ¡°You have to think of a regulator protecting students as consumers, ensuring they have access to what is still a very significant amount of public money and being clear about what happens in return.¡±

There are no plans to create a single ¡°super quango¡± to regulate the sector ¨C as proposed by Lord Browne¡¯s review ¨C but Mr Willetts envisaged that Hefce could ultimately have the power to stop institutions accessing the student loans system if they fall foul of the rules.

É«ºÐÖ±²¥

¡°I would say that [Hefce¡¯s] powers will be linked ultimately to whether it will [allow money to be lent] to students to pay the fees to go to institutions.

¡°Some of the conditions that are currently attached to [teaching] grants ¨C in a modernised, light-touch way ¨C will be attached to eligibility to student support,¡± he said.

There are also proposals to allow the Office for Fair Access to impose new fines if a university or other provider fails to keep to agreements on helping poorer students.

Meanwhile, the White Paper says the government will look at the rules governing degree-awarding powers and university title, which could make it easier for companies, further education colleges and providers from overseas to enter the market.

É«ºÐÖ±²¥

On university title, the government aims to look at the rules specifying how many students an institution must have before applying for use of the term.

With degree-awarding powers, there are proposals to remove the barriers that can prevent non-teaching institutions such as examining boards from offering degrees that can then be taught by institutions such as further education colleges.

simon.baker@tsleducation.com