The Office for Students (OfS) has today
written to universities and colleges to highlight the
importance of communicating changes to how courses are taught
during the lockdown amid concerns of inadequate information for
students where tougher pandemic restrictions have been
introduced.
This comes following the government’s announcement of new national
restrictions in England from 5 November, and subsequent guidance published for the
Department for Education.
In recent weeks, the OfS has been engaging closely with
universities and colleges where they have moved to delivering
significant parts of courses online to ensure that they are
delivering good quality teaching for all students.
In some cases, universities are not communicating sufficiently
clearly with their students. As new national rules come into
force, universities and colleges must pay particular attention to
providing clear and effective communications with students. As
detailed in today’s
letter, universities and colleges should:
- ensure that students understand when and why there may be
increased levels of online teaching, and when they may expect a
return to aspects of face-to-face delivery
- explain plans for the remainder of the academic year, as far
as is reasonably possible, setting out specifically whether some
teaching may be delayed so it may be completed at a later stage
- ensure that all students are aware of what pastoral and
academic support are available to them and how to make complaints
through both informal and formal mechanisms.
Susan Lapworth, Director of Regulation at the OfS, said:
‘As universities make changes in response to the developing
situation, it is important that they continue to provide suitable
academic support to all students and that the quality of
education – including online teaching – remains high. A key part
of this is ensuring that students clearly understand any new
teaching arrangements and how their course will be delivered,
both in the short and long term.
‘Universities and colleges have been working hard to deliver a
mix of in-person, online and blended learning. Indeed, many have
developed innovative and good quality digital provision for their
students. However, it is crucial that students are not left in
the dark as universities and colleges continue to adapt to public
health advice and government guidance. We will continue to
monitor the situation closely and engage directly with providers
to ensure they are delivering good quality teaching for all
students.’
The OfS has previously published guidance on maintaining the
quality and standards of courses and consumer
protection. The requirements laid out in this guidance still
apply to higher education providers in England.
ENDS
Notes
- The OfS is actively monitoring the situation and engaging
with universities to ensure that they are delivering good quality
teaching for all students. It is:
- directly engaging with universities, colleges and other
higher education providers, to ensure that they are
communicating changed arrangements for teaching and learning
clearly, and to ensure that they will maintain the quality of
their provision that is accessible for all
- following up directly with individual universities and
colleges where we receive notifications from students,
parents or others raising concerns about the quality of
teaching on offer
- requiring universities and colleges to report to us when
they are not able to deliver a course or award a
qualification
- conducting additional student polling to understand
students’ experience of teaching and learning. In September,
we commissioned a
poll of over 1,400 students to find out how teaching,
learning and assessment were affected during lockdown. The
polling will assist us in understanding whether there have
been any changes in students views since then.
