Government reforms to higher education in England

On 20 October 2025, the Secretary of State for Education made a statement to the House of Commons about proposed reforms to the post-16 and skills education sector and published the Government’s white paper for reforming further and higher education in England.

Some of the key features of the white paper have been trailed previously, including the revised target for two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning – academic, technical, or apprenticeships – by age 25. Concern is expressed in the white paper about “too many young people being left behind”, with nearly one million 16–24-year-olds currently not in education, employment or training (NEET). The Government proposes as part of its Youth Guarantee to introduce an automatic college place for all 16-year-olds “so that no one is left behind after their GCSEs”.

A new vocational qualification (V-Level) was a headline policy announcement as “the only pathway of vocational qualifications at level 3 for young people. These will sit alongside A Levels and T Levels, providing simplicity and clarity as well as quality”.

Chapter 1 of the white paper focuses on “working with employers to drive growth and opportunity through education and training”. Lots of policy initiatives are set out with many being allocated to the new executive agency Skills England.

Chapter 2 sets out the Government’s vision to develop “a specialist and prestigious further education system that delivers high-quality education and training for all”. Included in the policy initiatives are investments to alleviate workforce pressures and to establish a professional development pathway for teachers in further education. The Government proposes to “facilitate increased specialisation through the introduction of Technical Excellence Colleges” which would be aligned to the Government’s growth-driving priority sectors. The Further Education Commissioner will support colleges to improve financial efficiency, lead college restructuring where that is needed and work with colleges to deliver continuous improvement in quality.

Chapter 3 articulates the Government’s policy proposals for “strengthening our world-leading higher education system” in England – and this is the focus of the remainder of this brief article which is not a comprehensive summary of the white paper or all of the policy proposals for higher education and research.

The white paper includes many positive statements, recognising that “our higher education sector is one of the country’s most valuable assets”, that it is “a powerful engine of economic growth” and “a vital component of the wider skills sector”. The key challenges noted are “demographic shifts, inflation, the increased cost of research and volatility in international student numbers are driving financial pressures”.

The headline policy announcement, which relates to raising of the cap on the fee charged to domestic undergraduate students, states: “We will increase undergraduate tuition fee caps for all higher education providers in line with forecast inflation in academic years 2026/27 and 2027/28.”

Going further, the Government has promised to “legislate when parliamentary time allows to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years”.

However, many have commented that the proposed new levy on international student fees will reduce the sums received from an increase in the fee charged for domestic undergraduate students, albeit that the new International Student Levy will be used to fund the proposed re-introduction of maintenance grants for domestic students from low income households and who choose to study subjects aligned to the Government’s Industrial Strategy. More details are promised in the Autumn Budget.

A key feature of the white paper is the Government’s “encouragement” for higher education providers to “capitalise on their comparative advantage”.

There is a helpful statement in the introduction to this chapter: “Our starting point is that the diversity of the sector underpins its strengths and contributions – from specialist institutions in dance, music and drama, through to centres of excellence in teaching and applied research, to powerhouses in scholarship and discovery research.”

However, noting that the higher education sector is independent and autonomous, the Government says that it “will actively encourage each provider to be clear about the role they are playing, their unique strengths, and where they can build stronger collaborations with other providers”. The Government, in addition to its expectations at an international, national and provider level, wants “a much more collaborative system” regionally. It expects “to see more consolidation and formal collaboration” and anticipates “fewer broad generalist providers and more specialists”.

The regulator – the Office for Students (OfS) – is promised more power and responsibilities. These include:

• the OfS is to be “single primary regulator for all higher education providers offering provision at higher level 4 or above”

• the OfS is to have a “more robust process for market entry”

• the OfS is to work with Government “to explore how best to incentivise regional collaborations”

• the promised future tuition fee uplifts will be conditional on providers achieving “higher quality thresholds” through the OfS quality regime (currently under consultation)

• the Government will support the OfS in strengthening its governance and management conditions of registration for providers (which, importantly, enable regulatory intervention by the OfS)

• it is to continue to strengthen its financial monitoring and data collection processes to help the sector to identify and mitigate risks

• the Government supports the OfS in its new registration requirements for providers relating to preventing and tackling harassment

• the Government will work with the OfS to develop new Higher Technical Qualification awarding powers for providers as part of its wider review of degree awarding powers

• in addition to the new quality regime under consultation, the Government has promised, when Parliamentary time allows, to legislate to enable the OfS to impose recruitment limits on student numbers “where growth risks poor quality”

• in addition to the current consultation regarding standards for universities overseeing franchise arrangements at other institutions, the Government plans to defund large franchise providers altogether unless they are registered with the OfS and to legislate to enable the OfS to intervene to tackle poor quality provision and prevent abuse of public money

• strengthened statutory powers are promised to the OfS to “act quickly to investigate all regulatory risk, and close down provision where fraud or misuse of public money is identified”

• the OfS is to have more investigative powers where required to tackle abuse of the student finance system by recruitment agents

• in addition to operating the complaints scheme under the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 (which was delayed in its implementation by the Government), the Government intends to “give the Office for Students stronger regulatory powers to take robust action against higher education providers who do not meet their duties under the Act”

• the Government will work with the OfS “to develop options for how we measure and compare progress in higher education”

• the Government will support the OfS “to assess the impact of artificial intelligence, including how students are using it in assessments, to ensure the integrity of higher education assessment and qualifications are not compromised”.

This is a long list of additional activities and powers proposed for the OfS which will need to exercise its increased jurisdiction in line with the established requirements of public and administrative law.