Protecting and promoting the collective student interest

‌HEFCE has worked in the interests of students for a long time as part of our commitment to opportunity, choice and excellence in higher education.

The 2011 Higher Education White Paper ‘Students at the Heart of the System’ placed a new and welcome emphasis on our role.

What do we mean by 'the collective student interest'? 

HEFCE’s collective student interest role extends to any significant issue that has an impact on a sizeable group of higher education students at universities and colleges that we fund. This includes:

• prospective, present and past students
• undergraduate and postgraduate students
• full-time and part-time students
• home, EU and international students. 

Whenever we can, we will also seek to support the collective student interest at higher education institutions that we do not fund. 

Different groups of students may have diverse needs and interests. For example, mature learners’ interests may differ from those of school leavers. We will take this into account in our work.  

Our role in promoting and protecting the collective student interest is wide-ranging and varied. Much of what we do is long standing – for example, providing information about higher education for students, our widening participation initiatives, and the National Student Survey.

More recently, we have begun work on the development of a new regulatory framework for higher education which reflects the student interest.

Our work on the collective student interest is carried out in partnership with Government, universities and colleges, other higher education organisations, and with students themselves.

Our work covers the collective interest of all students. However, our role in relation to students studying with providers that we do not fund is necessarily more limited.

What doesn’t our role cover?

A student’s primary relationship is with their institution and its staff, as well as with each other and with their union or guild. We have no intention of interfering with these relationships.

We work closely with, but do not replicate, the role or functions of other student-focused organisations such as the Office of the Independent Adjudicator or the Quality Assurance Agency.

We will consider the interests of groups of students, but not be directly concerned with individual cases (except in cases where our role is as principal regulator of exempt HE providers).

What does our role cover?

Our work on the collective student interest is guided by the following principles:

• promoting and encouraging a diverse and inclusive higher education system
• working with and through others to promote and protect the collective student interest
• intervening within our powers in a crisis that threatens the collective student interest
• recognising and acknowledging tensions between different student groups, and between HEFCE’s role and government, institutions and other organisations if and when they arise
• enabling student voices and perspectives to be better heard within HEFCE’s own decision-making processes, policies and engagement with the sector
• presenting and encouraging evidence-based good practice and research to support the student interest
• communicating transparently about our student interest role and how HEFCE addresses the student interest.

Some of our key areas of activity that relate to the student interest are detailed below. We have few powers in any of these areas to ‘control’, ‘enforce’ or ‘direct’ what happens. But they are important areas in our ‘student interest’ role, and we will work to influence where we can.

• Regulation and assurance
  In cases of institutional crisis or transition we will have regard to the collective interests of students
• Complaints
  We will work to ensure all students have recourse to an external body to which they can take a complaint.
• Widening participation
  We will work to ensure that the HE system remains accessible, fair and inclusive through continuing support for widening participation, fair access, social mobility and student success. This includes students studying (or aiming to study) in different modes and at different levels.
• Progression
  We will support progression from a wide range of backgrounds, including vocational into HE.
• Student engagement and the student interest in quality assurance and enhancement
  We will work with the QAA and others to ensure all students are engaged, individually and collectively, as partners in the assurance and enhancement of their educational experience.
• Information for students
  We will work with others to ensure that student information continues to meet the changing needs of both current and prospective students, based on evidence.
• Student engagement and representation
  We will support and encourage institutions to develop their own engagement strategies to effectively engage their students at all levels of study.
• Employment and employability
  We will maintain a focus on graduate skills, employment and employability and work with others to encourage monitoring evidence of the evolving skills needs of employers.
• Postgraduate students
  We will maintain focus on meeting the needs of both postgraduate taught and research students, promoting continued accessibility (in terms of both supply and demand), equality of access for different student groups, sufficient student support infrastructures for postgraduate students, excellent research environments and supporting infrastructure for doctoral candidates. 
• Student success
  We will monitor retention and promote good practice to facilitate student success.
• Subject availability
  We will monitor the future availability of subjects to best ensure students continue to have access to provision across all subject areas.
• Designation for student support
  We will work with others to ensure the designation of courses for student support purposes includes consideration of the student interest.
• Financial support for students
  We will promote a system of financial support for students that takes account of the student interest.