Proudfoot’s in the right place at the right time, given the new regulatory architecture is built to open the market up to new providers. But his small organisation faces an existential question of what binds together Independent HE’s disparate membership of profit and non-profit providers – and what really differentiates them from the established sector, if OfS registration puts providers on a level playing field. The challenge remains his members not seeing themselves as a cohesive sector.
One option might be evolving into the HE-equivalent of New Schools Network – to attract new providers into sector, hold their hands through registration process and support OfS and DfE’s own policy and delivery teams. Or another option is IHE leading a broader rebranding and repositioning of the independent sector as a whole – enabling its members to scale up their marketing and promotion activities.