A blog with impact?

On 20 June 2026 HEPI kindly published a blog by Smita Jamdar and me which focused on the need for the Office for Students (OfS) to tidy up its regulatory act. We suggested that there needed to be some serious housekeeping in relation to the OfS Regulatory Framework to make it usable by registered institutions and those applying to the Register. The blog noted that the OfS had recently consulted on changes which aimed to build on the current Framework, but there remained a real need to get the basics right to enable everyone to understand how the OfS will regulate them lawfully, fairly and proportionately.

Some of the more recent OfS regulatory changes and proposals have set out requirements that institutions publish single comprehensive sources of information in different areas. It was suggested in the blog that it was time the OfS got its act together and provided a single comprehensive Regulatory Framework.

A surprising development

Well, it does appear that some progress has been made on this front.

The whole Regulatory Framework has yet to be overhauled (that will surely take a bit longer) but on 13 July 2026 the OfS updated the Regulatory Framework web page.

This is what it looked like before then in the form that had not been updated since November 2022:

And now there are quite a few more links to more recent elements of the Framework as published on 13 July. Lots more regulatory stuff is listed as you can see here:

And better still, there is a record of previous versions too. In the same way as it expects institutions to provide durable records of relevant documents for each cohort of students, the OfS is following its own guidance and has added this historical record:

A three and a half year gap for something as fundamental as this does seem excessive, but it does at last look like the regulator is getting down to some proper housekeeping.

This may have already been in hand of course and was not influenced in any way by the HEPI blog. But whether it represents a minor policy win or is just coincidence it is an important and long overdue step. Now this basic housework is done we really need to have a comprehensive review of the current burdensome regulatory model and look to replace it with a rationalised framework.