Get on up, when you’re down

The transcript was as follows (my bolding):

Want to earn extra money while studying at university? We have the perfect solution. The Student Finance program offers up to £18,000 per year for your personal expenses and £9,250 for your tuition fees. Plus, with our unique studying program, you only need to study two days a week, either during the day or in the evening. Interested in how it works? Click on the details.

There are hundreds of adverts like this on social media. Many offer ads in languages like Romanian, where the opportunities on offer are pushed at those with pre-settled status.

When I clicked through to the agent’s website, I wasn’t told which “universities” were offering its range of courses – only that there are campuses in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Leicester, or Northampton.

Advantages pushed at prospective students include that courses in the UK are typically shorter than those in other countries, “allowing students more flexibility to work, pursue further studies, or engage in personal interests”.

These are full-time courses, and the student finance described is for full-time students.

Students are told – below a photo that looks a lot like some secondary school students on a day trip to New College Oxford to me – of the benefits of a “well-equipped and contemporary campus” that provides “comfort and convenience”, one that will “enhance your overall student experience.”

Back in February, in the face of hostile coverage of international recruitment, Universities UK announced that its Board had agreed that it would review the Agent Quality Framework (AQF) and make recommendations on how the AQF and wider UK data infrastructure can be enhanced to identify and address bad practice and improve resilience.

The AQF was never aimed at domestic agents, and this week UUK told me that there are in fact no recommendations on how the AQF and wider UK data infrastructure can be enhanced – only that it is working with the Department for Education on better take-up and embedding of the AQF.

At the time, then universities minister Robert Halfon also splashily announced that his own department was to launch its own investigation into allegations of “bad practice” by agents recruiting students for UK universities:

I’m absolutely clear I’ve asked the Department for Education to take out an urgent investigation into bad practice by agents where it occurs.

In February, during the Public Accounts Committee’s investigation into student loans issued to those studying at franchised higher education providers, DfE’s perm sec Susan Acland-Hood was asked why the department had not yet introduced guidelines for providers on the use of agents and financial incentives. The work on international agents was suddenly repurposed:

We have been talking to the sector about agents. Universities UK has worked to introduce the UK agent quality framework, which is designed to make sure that agents are being well used in the system. Agents have a positive role to play but need to be operating responsibly and acting in a way that is genuinely in students’ interests.

On the back of more recent reports, we have also started a rapid investigation into the use of agents, both domestically and internationally, in order to protect students’ interests. Alongside that, Universities UK has committed to reviewing the agent quality framework and updating the admissions code of practice to make clear how that applies, particularly to students studying foundation degrees, which is one of the focuses of recent attention.

Julia Kinniburgh, Director General Skills, Department for Education, added:

We are planning to look at the use of agents, focusing particularly on whether there is any mis-selling of courses from agents to individuals, particularly things that may promise individuals guarantees on to courses. We are planning to focus on how agents are employed by universities, looking particularly at whether we need more transparency in that area, so that there is clarity.

As the Permanent Secretary said, we have been talking to Universities UK, which has also been clear that it wants to take action in this space. It has committed to reviewing the quality agents framework that it has. It has also committed to, first, ensuring that its members all sign up to that framework, and, secondly, making sure that it is improved.

The Chair reminded DfE colleagues that in July 2023 it published a consultation response stating that providers should have safeguards to protect student interests during recruitment.

In that consultation response, you are quite right that we publicly committed to consider whether we should take further action to impose additional controls. We have taken various additional controls since July.

Pressed on what those “various additional controls” were, Kinniburgh responded:

We now have an intelligence group that currently meets weekly across the three organisations. We have taken various actions since that point. As Susan Lapworth was saying, we have also continued to have conversations with vice-chancellors, particularly those who are responsible for franchised provision. We continue to work through whether there are further steps that we want to take.

“Various additional controls” = chit chats with each other and VCs, and more thinking through the options. Right.

The Public Accounts Committee’s report back in April noted DfE’s central assurances, along with OfS’ assurances over its partnership with National Trading Standards. None of that seems to have manifested in… anything so far on domestic agents. The National Audit Office’s report on franchising earlier this year noted those assurances too.

In September, buried in Treasury Minutes, we got the government’s formal response to the Public Accounts Committee report. It doesn’t really mention agents.

Maybe all of the above is why I’m still getting the ads, eh. A couple of weeks ago in the pub after a team meeting, I managed to apply and get accepted onto a course of the above sort by uploading an MP3 of 5ive’s “Keep on Movin” rather than a personal statement.

I’m sure DfE’s rapid review, UUK’s AQF embedding push, OfS’ promises on consumer protection law and anything else that DfE is still considering will be along any day to stop that sort of thing from happening.