The Office for Students (OfS) has published an insight brief setting out considerations for universities and colleges when supporting disabled students. The brief encourages institutions to review legal requirements for reasonable adjustments, student engagement practices, accessibility of teaching and assessments and use of staff training and data evaluation. The guidance draws on National Student Survey responses, polling data and workshops with university representatives, highlighting persistent gaps between disabled and non-disabled student experiences in completion, progression and attainment rates.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published an insight brief urging universities and colleges to improve support for disabled students, whose experiences remain consistently poorer than those of their non-disabled peers. Drawing on survey data, polling, performance statistics, and feedback from institutional workshops, the brief outlines key considerations including legal obligations, effective communication, personalised support, and accessible teaching and assessment. It also references the work of the OfS’s Disability in Higher Education Advisory Panel, established in April 2024, and calls on institutions to reflect on these insights to ensure disabled students receive an equitable and high-quality educational experience.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published a lessons-learned report following the April 2026 High Court judgment in the University of Sussex judicial review, which found flaws in the OfS’s investigation and enforcement approach. The report, informed by an internal KPMG review and sector feedback, sets out 5 lessons and 13 actions under a new ‘no surprises’ approach to regulation, under which the OfS will engage early, communicate openly and use enforcement only where it considers this necessary. Measures include improving transparency during investigations, increasing regular dialogue with providers and using alternative interventions before formal enforcement where possible. The OfS has established a specialist enforcement team separate from policy development and will strengthen structures and oversight to guard against predetermination and decision momentum. It will review organisational culture to encourage challenge and agility. The OfS has already updated its freedom of speech guidance and definition of governing documents. An external review of its structures and processes is underway, with recommendations expected by the end of 2026. Progress on the actions will be publicly reported.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published a new strategy for 2025–2030, setting out its approach to risk-based regulation of higher education in England. The strategy sets out four regulatory attitudes to guide the OfS’s work: being ambitious for students from all backgrounds; collaborative in pursuing priorities; vigilant in safeguarding public money and student fees; and vocal in emphasising that higher education benefits individuals and communities. The OfS will focus on three priority areas: quality; student experience and support; and sector resilience, aiming for all institutions to demonstrate effective governance in navigating financial and strategic risks. Equality of opportunity will be embedded at every level of the OfS’s regulatory work. The strategy was developed following a public consultation with students, institutions, and other stakeholders, with feedback sessions informing the final approach.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published a report highlighting concerns that degree classification algorithms may be contributing to grade inflation. OfS found that St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and the University of West London breached condition B4 by implementing algorithms that would have elevated the proportion of first-class and upper second-class degrees. However, both institutions had already resolved the issues before the investigations began.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published its independent assessment of the financial position and resilience of the higher education sector in England, based on audited data for 2023–24 and 2024–25 and providers’ forecast data for 2025–26 to 2028–29. The OfS found that higher education institutions remain under continued financial pressure despite a small improvement in financial performance in 2024–25, driven by higher income from tuition fees and education contracts. The report shows that more than a third (35.8%) of institutions reported a deficit in 2024–25, with this forecast to rise to 42.7% in 2025–26, reflecting volatile student recruitment patterns and rising costs. The OfS also warned against persistent over-optimism in student recruitment projections, noting that failure to meet these expectations could result in deficits, reduced operating cash flow, declining liquidity, increased financial risk across the sector and a heightened likelihood of disruption to students.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published findings from its stakeholder survey examining how senior leaders at universities, colleges and specialist institutions perceive the regulator. Conducted by Savanta in January and February 2026 and completed by 171 accountable officers, the survey found that 96% of respondents agreed it is important to have a higher education regulator, while 42% said their overall relationship with the OfS had improved over the previous 12 months. However, perceptions varied by institution type: 50% of respondents at universities reported a negative view of the OfS, compared with 17% at further education colleges and 29% at specialist institutions. Respondents also expressed mixed views on the OfS’s effectiveness, transparency, regulatory guidance and communications, with 44% describing the regulator as ‘somewhat effective’ and 61% agreeing that it communicates regulatory changes transparently and provides sufficient guidance.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published the rules for its new freedom of speech complaints scheme, which will open on 1 September 2026 and has updated its freedom of speech guidance following judgment in R (University of Sussex) v Office for Students [2026] EWHC 984 (Admin). The rules confirm that staff, applicants for academic posts, visiting speakers, emeritus professors and certain other individuals can complain to the OfS if they believe their freedom of speech rights have been infringed, while students will continue to make free speech complaints through the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education. The OfS says the scheme will be free to use and may make recommendations where it upholds a complaint, including reinstating a research programme or re-inviting a visiting speaker. The OfS states that it expects to complete most complaints within six months and to publish its findings. The updated guidance includes revisions to the three-step framework for assessing restrictions on lawful speech, amendments to a small number of examples, the addition of one new example and clarifications of points published since the guidance was introduced in 2025.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published a speech delivered by its Director for Fair Access and Participation John Blake, on increasing equality of opportunity in English higher education through embedding partnerships and collaboration, at an Impetus third sector forum event on 18 January 2024. In the speech, Blake has said that the three key reasons he considers partnership essential in this work relate to efficiency, contestability and sustainable impact. He has also announced updates to the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, with the inclusion of additional groups of students who may be at risk of not experiencing equality of opportunity.

The Office for Students (OfS) has published supplementary analysis of its survey into students’ experiences of sexual misconduct in English higher education. The survey of final-year undergraduate students across England found that 24.5% of respondents reported experiencing sexual harassment since entering higher education, while 14.1% reported sexual assault or violence. The supplementary analysis examines variations in reported experiences by subject area and student characteristics. According to the OfS, 42.4% of students studying language and area studies reported experiencing at least one instance of sexual harassment, followed by students studying veterinary sciences (41.3%) and medicine and dentistry (40.3%). The analysis also found that 29% of veterinary sciences students reported experiencing sexual assault or violence, compared with 14.1% across the overall student population. The figures were 25% for language and area studies students and 23.3% for medicine and dentistry students. Female students reported higher prevalence rates across all subject areas. The OfS states that 31.1% of female veterinary sciences students reported experiencing sexual assault or violence, compared with 28.6% of female language and area studies students and 27.6% of female medicine and dentistry students. The OfS says it plans to run a further sexual misconduct survey linked to the National Student Survey in 2027 and to publish combined institutional-level data from the 2025 and 2027 surveys.

The Office for Students (OfS) has reported that three education providers, the University of Manchester, ICON College of Technology and Management and London Bridge Business Academy, have removed or changed terms considered unfair in its student contracts after concerns were referred to National Trading Standards. Concerns included terms being used by the providers that caused a significant imbalance in the rights and obligations of the provider and its students as well as terms which were not written in plain language or transparent as is required by law.

The Office for Students (OfS) has reported it will introduce new requirements for universities to protect students from harassment and misconduct following a survey published on 31 July 2024 which found that 20% of students have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour. The new condition will require universities to publish comprehensive information to explain to students how their institution is preventing harassment and sexual misconduct, how incidents can be reported and how the students will be supported during investigation.