Working with others
Working independently but interdependently with the wider higher education regulatory framework remains one of our key objectives. We have continued to meet and engage with key sector stakeholders. We worked with a wide range of organisations, including the Department for Education (DfE), the Welsh Government, the Office for Students (OfS), Medr, Universities UK (UUK), the National Union of Students (NUS), Colegau Cymru and the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), among others.
We contributed to cross-sector forums and discussions, responded to consultations and provided evidence to the Higher Education Select Committee, ensuring that learning from complaints informs wider policy thinking. When relevant to their areas of responsibility, we shared information from student complaints with other professional statutory and regulatory bodies, including the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Solicitors’ Regulation Agency, and the Health and Care Professions Council.
Financial stability was a dominant concern for the higher education sector in 2025. This concern shaped much of our collaborative work; we brought our knowledge of student complaints into sector-wide discussions about how financial pressures can affect students’ experiences and outcomes. We also continued to engage with providers where there was heightened risk, to support the aim of resolving concerns early, and minimising potential disruption for students.
The wider financial context has meant building on our longstanding aim that there should be appropriate protection in place for all students in the event of a provider closure. In July 2025 we published, with SUMS Consulting, Putting students first: Managing the impact of higher education provider closure. The study drew on cross-sector perspectives and was well received. It has strengthened the evidence base for this potentially far-reaching area of work, and it has given us much to consider in terms of early intervention, funding, and the partnerships needed to improve outcomes for students when providers face market exit.
We also published a public interest case summary about the Applied Business Academy. Similarly to Brit College, students were significantly affected by failures in quality assurance and could not achieve their qualification. The Applied Business Academy entered liquidation, and the liquidators informed us that it would be unable to comply if we were to make any Recommendations. These cases show the real-life impact on students of an insolvency regime that can only consider students as unsecured creditors once a provider goes into liquidation.
The example of Brit College and Applied Business Academy brought into sharper focus a continuing gap in protection for some students studying for higher education qualifications awarded by bodies such as City & Guilds and Pearson, where the delivering provider is not a member of the OIA. In these cases, students experienced harm arising from provider failure and quality assurance weaknesses; the routes to redress and accountability are limited once the provider is unable, or unwilling to, comply with our Recommendations.
We used our engagement with partners and regulators to raise the profile of this issue and to highlight the practical consequences for students when responsibility is fragmented across awarding bodies, delivery partners, and regulatory frameworks. This remains an important area for further cross-sector attention if students are to be properly protected when these arrangements fail.
We also continued to engage with the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 and the related regulatory arrangements. Following the pause announced in 2024, the Government set out its approach during 2025, including bringing some provisions into force while proposing changes to elements it considers burdensome. We will continue to work with the OfS to support clarity for students and providers where there is potential for overlap, including taking account of relevant regulation and guidance when reviewing complaints, and sharing learning on systemic issues where appropriate.
In Wales, we continued to work with the Welsh Government and Medr. One of our large-scale projects was the implementation of the expansion of our remit into further education in Wales, alongside the development of the wider regulatory framework.
The timetable remains closely tied to the development of the regulatory framework, and we have stayed focused on supporting readiness across the system, with the intention that we will begin work in Welsh Further Education in September 2026, with necessary changes to allow full onboarding in place for September 2027.
We also remained engaged on consumer and dispute resolution policy. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has implications for the regulation of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) bodies, and we have continued to monitor developments, engaging where helpful to ensure our statutory scheme remains well understood within this landscape.
Meanwhile we continue to work towards our goal that all students should have access to independent redress by engaging with providers and awarding organisations who wish to join the Scheme voluntarily, alongside our work with qualifying institutions. In 2025, we welcomed Royal Academy Schools to the Scheme. RA Schools was established in 1769 and provides a postgraduate education in contemporary art practice. RA Schools formally became a member from January 2026.
A key part of our work with others is bringing our expertise to areas where it can benefit students, student organisations and providers. In 2025 we continued to contribute to cross-sector work on student mental health, including the Mental Health Taskforce, and we continued to embed the principles that support more compassionate communications and effective complaints handling in practice.
As well as our work within the HE sector, we are also part of a wider community of complaints and ombuds organisations. We remain active within the Ombudsman Association and the European Network of Ombuds in Higher Education, which facilitate valuable discussion about good practice in complaints handling.