HM Government Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper

The much anticipated, and trailed, white paper is a joint effort by the departments of education, work and pensions and science, innovation and technology. Its aim is to align post-16 education and skills with the government commitments in the Industrial Strategy and the Plan for Change. Higher education (HE) is a major focus, with policy announcements for the sector taking up 25 of the 170 pages. The full white paper can be found here.

At-a-glance:

• The maximum tuition fee cap will increase in line with forecast inflation in academic years 2026/27 and 2027/28. Tuition fees caps for foundation years in classroom-based subjects will be frozen for academic years 2026/27 and 2027/28. The government will then legislate to increase tuition fee caps automatically for future academic years. Future fee uplifts will be conditional on HE providers achieving a higher quality threshold through the Office for Students (OfS) quality regime to protect taxpayers’ investment in HE (p9, p51, p52)
• The OfS will be given greater power to swiftly identify “low-quality” teaching, including franchise provision, and intervene to tackle it. The aim is to legislate to enable the OfS to impose recruitment limits where growth risks poor quality, and close down provision in the case of fraud or misuse of public funds (p65)
• The Lifelong Learning Entitlement will be introduced within academic year 2026 to 2027. It gives new learners access to 4 years’ worth of tuition fee loans and returning learners a reduced residual entitlement. From September 2026, learners will be able to apply for funding to study modules of Higher Technical Qualifications (levels 4&5) and modules of full level 6 qualifications, in subject groups that address priority skills gaps and align with the government’s Industrial Strategy, based on advice from Skills England (p56)

• Maintenance loans will increase in line with forecast inflation every academic year. In addition, new “targeted” means-tested maintenance grants will be introduced by the end of this Parliament for students who are studying courses (levels 4 to 6) that “support the government’s missions and Industrial Strategy”. They will be funded by an International Student Levy. Further details will be set out in the Autumn Budget (p56,57)
• The Strategic Priorities Grant will be reformed to ensure alignment of funding with the priority sectors in the Industrial Strategy, the Plan for Change and future skills needs. The government expects providers to offer “more flexible, modular provision and strengthen progression routes from further education (FE) into HE, supported by transferable credits”. A consultation will be launched into making student support for level 6 degrees conditional on the inclusion of “break points” in degree programmes, so students can gain other recognised qualifications as they progress through their degree course (p60)
• Eligible individuals who have used all of their Lifelong Learning Entitlement will be able to access additional tuition fee and maintenance support for priority courses (p57)
• New ‘V Level’ vocational qualifications at level 3 will be introduced to sit alongside A levels and T Levels. Unlike T Levels, which are equivalent to 3 A Levels, young people will be able to take a mixture of V Levels and A Levels – offering more choice and flexibility (p9)
• Providers should specialise in their research and collaborate more with other providers to share infrastructure, assets and talent. Over time there will be fewer broad generalist providers and more specialists. This will include specialists in teaching only, specialists in research, and some institutions who specialise in teaching with applied research in specific disciplines (p50)
• The dual support research funding approach will be maintained. REF2029 will be paused for no more than 3 months to reset it. This will include reviewing the weightings for the three elements of the framework to ensure a sustained “focus on excellence” and that the REF enables specialisation and collaboration (p53)
• Research grant cost recovery will be improved. This may result in” funding a lower volume of research but at a more sustainable level”. Effective collaborations across institutions can bring down the cost of research, such as sharing resources and infrastructure, minimising duplication of effort and effective use of artificial intelligence tools (p52)
• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is carrying out research into lower-than-expected cost recovery for other funders of research grants to understand their drivers. Sustainability of PhD programmes is also being explored, to establish cost recovery rates for different types of PhDs (p52)
• Governing bodies must ensure they have the diverse skills and capability to oversee strategy, plan prudently, understand and manage risk, challenge, deliver change and put in place sustainable business models. Governing bodies should not sign off unachievable plans and governors should challenge whether their organisation is specialising appropriately (p53)
• Access and participation plans will be reformed again. The OfS will focus on providers who are lagging behind in addressing inequalities in access and participation. For those doing well, there will be reduced bureaucracy (p57)
• Disparities in access to PhD programmes will be explored, particularly the declining proportion of UK doctoral student applicants in some fields, including reducing financial barriers for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds (p58)
• On international students, there will be tighter enforcement on visa approvals and course enrolments and completions (p63)
• The OfS will review the merits of the sector continuing to use the external examining system to ensure standards in assessments. It will include consideration of the extent to which recent patterns of improving grades can be explained by an erosion of standards, rather than improved teaching or assessment practices (p67)
• While encouraging providers to harness the power of AI and asking them to ensure all students are familiar with it, the OfS will assess how students are using AI in assessments, to ensure that the integrity of assessments and qualifications are not compromised (p70)

Implications for governance:

The white paper’s higher education announcements – described by the government as a “reset” – are wide ranging and potentially impact all areas of core business.

On HE governance, the white paper specifically addresses the need to improve the effectiveness of governing boards. A section entitled “stronger governance” (p53) pinpoints the need for diverse skills, strong financial planning and management and robust challenge.

“We have seen overly optimistic strategic and financial planning across the sector, and potential issues with the relationship and information flows between governance bodies and executive management teams,” it says. “Governance and leadership arrangements must be robust enough to respond to an increasingly challenging and volatile operating environment.”

Governors will want to look out for the outcome of the Committee of University Chairs review, launched in May and cited in the white paper, to strengthen its code of governance.

Of the key headline announcements, governors will, of course, welcome the plan for tuition fees to rise in line with inflation, ending a decade of fee freezes and real term falls in domestic per-student funding. 

Future fee uplifts, however, will be contingent on achieving “a higher quality threshold through the OfS quality regime”. What this means in practice is so far unclear.  Any future system is likely to include an assessment of the quality of postgraduate provision, where decreasing UK enrolments is a major concern.  What also seems to under consideration is a four or five year rolling programme that will generate some form of rating and which may include visits to providers, rather than a paperwork exercise. 

The white paper also indicates that future inflation-linked fee lifts will be built into statute, which means it will only happen if and when “parliamentary time allows”.

Governors will also welcome the already trailed reintroduction of means-tested maintenance grants, if not the introduction of the international student levy to pay for it, which will have a significant impact on fee income at some institutions.

Grant eligibility is tied to students studying courses which “support the government’s missions and Industrial Strategy”, so presumably some of the poorest students on courses deemed strategically unimportant will not receive it. 

The government’s vision for its lifelong learning guarantee, with a fluid system of short, modular courses offered from level 4 to 6, with students gaining credits and, for instance, joining from FE on to second year undergraduate degree courses, will present a challenge to the teaching and learning model in place at most universities. To work, it will demand closer working with FE and regional bodies and collaborations across HE: another key element of the white paper. The government wants to see evidence of this, from “simple” sharing of back-office functions and estates, to “groupings to emerge which will support more structured regional offers across research, skills, teaching, and research and development”. The white paper cites infrastructure and research partnerships such as the N8 Research Partnership and the Midlands Innovation university partnership as examples.

Providers and their governing boards have been exploring these options over recent years and since the publication of the Universities UK Blueprint report. The white paper makes clear there should be an acceleration in this direction of travel.

Research is another key focus of the policy document – particularly cutting down on research that is not fully funded. Institutions must be prepared to become “more specialised” and potentially produce less research but research that they can afford, which may mean “funding a lower volume of research but at a more sustainable level”. 

Again, collaboration is offered as a solution to bringing down the cost of research, such as though sharing resources and infrastructure, minimising duplication of effort and harnessing the use of artificial intelligence tools.

Research Excellence Framework (REF)2029 will go ahead, albeit with a three month pause to consider weightings to ensure “a sustained focus on excellence” and enable “specialisation and collaboration”.

Yet more reform of access and participation plans is promised. This means a move away from “a uniform approach” to a risk-based one, and a focus on those with the worst records of improvement. Postgraduate access and participation will also now be included in plans.

As the sector gets to grips with the policies proposed in the post-16 white paper what seems clear is a strengthened role for OfS – which is mentioned 59 times in the document – from deciding what constitutes quality teaching, its new power to impose recruitment limits where growth risks poor quality, to the requirement for all providers offering Lifelong Learning Entitlement-funded provision to register with the regulator. Governors can therefore expect more very significant announcements from the regulator in the months to come.

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