“High-risk” franchising agreements would need to be approved by the English regulator as part of a proposed new “accountability framework” for university partnerships.
The growth in franchising and other collaborative models has “collided” with “financial fragility” and “uneven regulatory oversight” to pose a “threat” to “academic standards, student protection and public confidence”, argues a new paper published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) on 6 August.
Authored by Vicki Stott, who spent six years as chief executive of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), it argues for a new operational model that can better manage partnerships in a harsher financial climate.
It says while concerns about franchising – in which a university authorises another provider to deliver its programmes or modules – have taken much of the focus, criticisms including a lack of accountability and failures to manage risk extend to other partnerships such as validation arrangements and some forms of transnational education.
The proposed new framework emphasises the need for “clear partnership lifecycles”; an “accountability matrix” to measure and record how partnerships are faring, a model for failure and recovery with “intervention triggers”; and a regulatory mapping layer that links partnerships’ functions to the OfS’ conditions of registration for providers, devolved national regimes, and student sponsor rules.
