Category Archives: Office for Students

England’s university free speech tsar says role is not to conduct ‘culture wars’

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Arif Ahmed pledges to remain politically neutral in his role and to ensure academic freedoms are maintained

England’s newly appointed university free speech tsar says his role is not to conduct “culture wars” and has pledged to be politically neutral in his efforts to combat threats to academic freedom.

Arif Ahmed, a former philosophy professor at Cambridge University, said he would measure his success or failure by surveys of students and by the number of complaints made under procedures being created by the Office for Students (OfS), England’s higher education regulator.

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English universities warned not to over-rely on fees of students from China

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Higher education regulator asks 23 institutions for contingency plans in case of sudden interruption of income

England’s higher education regulator has warned universities against over-reliance on tuition fees of students from China, as Rishi Sunak backtracked on his earlier pledge to close UK branches of the Beijing-sponsored Confucius Institute.

The Office for Students (OfS) wrote to 23 universities with high numbers of Chinese students on Thursday, asking to see their contingency planning in case of a sudden interruption to overseas recruitment.

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Register of tutor-student relations proposed for England campuses

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Academics may face dismissal if relations involving romance, sex or financial dependency are not reported

Universities in England could face sanctions if intimate relationships between staff and the students they have academic responsibilities for are not disclosed, under plans by the higher education watchdog.

Academics who refuse to report relationships with their students that involve sexual activity, romantic intimacy or financial dependency, should be dismissed, the Office for Students (OfS) has proposed.

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Higher education regulator to make freedom of speech priority next year

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OfS expected to gain new powers to regulate freedom of speech issues in England

The Office for Students will make freedom of speech and “off-limits” subjects on university campuses one of its top priorities for next year, despite the regulator receiving only around 60 complaints over the last four years.

Susan Lapworth, the OfS’s chief regulator, said students’ experience of higher education in England was “not just measured through statistics,” and could be affected by the attitudes towards issues such as freedom of speech at the institutions they attend.

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QC to examine NUS president election in antisemitism inquiry

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Rebecca Tuck says internal investigation into president-elect Shaima Dallali will take priority

The QC leading an independent investigation into alleged antisemitism within the National Union of Students has announced she will examine the election of the organisation’s incoming president as well as wider concerns.

Rebecca Tuck, who was appointed to head the inquiry after consultations between the NUS and the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), said an internal investigation into Shaima Dallali, the president-elect, under the NUS’s code of conduct would take first priority, with her findings to be announced within weeks.

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Too many first-class degrees awarded in England, regulator says

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Minister calls for universities to restore pre-pandemic award levels by next year

Universities in England have been for rebuked for awarding “excessive” numbers of first-class degrees during the pandemic, with ministers and regulators accusing the sector of undermining its own reputation.

The Office for Students (OfS) published analysis claiming that more than half of first-class degrees awarded in 2021 could not be explained by “observable factors” such as prior results or social background of students.

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