Source: Getty

Safety net: the report is all about ensuring that ¡®we don¡¯t have a fire without a?fire brigade¡¯, says Roger King

The three big political parties must commit to an English higher education bill to avert ¡°a threat to the system¡±, according to a major new report.

There should also be a Council for Higher Education with more autonomy from the government to regulate the sector, according to the report from the Higher Education Commission - an independent body made up of senior figures from education, business and politics.

The study, Regulating Higher Education: Protecting Students, Encouraging Innovation, Enhancing Excellence, also warns that private provision amounts to a ¡°growing unregulated sector¡± that ¡°has the potential to damage England¡¯s reputation as a leading provider of higher education¡±. It recommends that all higher education providers be forced - under threat of fines or closure for non-compliance - to sign up to common regulatory standards.

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Both the inquiry¡¯s co-chairs - Conservative peer Lord Norton of Louth and Roger King, former vice-chancellor of the University of Lincoln - said they believe the government may introduce a consolidation bill before the election, drawing together existing regulatory changes.

But their report, published on 9 October, which took evidence from the education sector over eight months, recommends much more significant change.

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It concedes that higher education regulation is seen as a ¡°geeky¡± topic, but stresses the repercussions of failing to introduce a bill to update regulation to accompany funding changes and the advent of new providers (as the government originally planned with its shelved White Paper).

¡°We are concerned that the regulatory structure is not yet equipped to manage the new system of funding, or the increased diversity of providers, and that gaps are forming, which pose a threat to the system,¡± says the HEC report.

Professor King, who is visiting professor in the School of Management at the University of Bath, said the report was about ensuring that ¡°we don¡¯t have a fire without a fire brigade¡±.

He urged the political parties to ¡°move on with our proposals before we find out we¡¯ve got some institutions, who we don¡¯t know about, suddenly getting into real difficulties without any recourse for their students, which might affect the reputation of the sector¡±.

Lord Norton, professor of government at the University of Hull, said the commission was ¡°making progress in that the parties are listening¡±. But the key point now was ¡°actually getting them to act¡±.

Among its 13 recommendations, the report says the government should commit to higher education legislation - and if time does not allow for a bill before the election, ¡°new legislation should appear in all three major parties¡¯ manifestos¡±.

The report calls for the creation of a Council for Higher Education that reports annually to Parliament. It would, Professor King said, have ¡°power to regulate in the public interest¡± rather than linking its powers to funding.

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It would build on the remit of the Higher Education Funding Council for England but incorporate the Office for Fair Access, the Student Loans Company and a new body focused on private providers and universities¡¯ private offshoots.

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Professor King said that unlike the ¡°rather simplistic¡± call in the Browne Review for a single regulator, the HEC recommends that the Quality Assurance Agency, Ucas and the Higher Education Statistics Agency remain as independent bodies as examples of ¡°good self-regulation¡±.

Hefce has been left hamstrung by the lack of a bill, as the phasing-out of teaching grant - which it used under the old system to enforce regulation - diminishes its powers.

The HEC says it heard from witnesses that ¡°Hefce had become too close to government¡±, and describes its own proposal as having autonomy from both the government and the sector.

john.morgan@tsleducation.com