The official way of assigning value to the actions of our beloved regulator of higher education in England is via a suite of operational measures.

It is a hang-over from the Barber days of trajectories and charts. By looking at reportable events, notifications, provider registration performance, and the confirmation of degree awarding powers – the story goes – we get an insight into the very soul of the Office for Students (which, lest we forget, exists to deal with such activity). So what do we see?

Of course December 2024 saw the taps of the last two switch off, and the floodgates will not reopen until August of this year. As of the last quarter of 2024, OfS had 42 active applications. It received four and resolved (we assume) a different four during these months, leaving the overall total identical of the previous quarter. Indeed – a glance along the time series suggests that numbers began to mount up in Q3.

Quarter 3 of 2024 saw the highest ever number (16) of new degree awarding powers application open – the regulator managed to resolve one of these before the curtain came down in December. There are also 14 full degree awarding powers applications open – again, one off the record – with two resolved and one received during quarter 4.

The ostensible reason for the pause was to allow capacity for the serious work of financial regulation to take place – and much of this would have been reported to OfS via reportable events (where the provider tells the regulator it may have a problem) and notifications (when somebody else does). As of the end of the December term, OfS was resolving reportable events in a maximum of 39 days – so we should hope none of these reports concern maybe not being able to meet payroll the following month.

To be fair, OfS has been putting some serious work in to shift the backlog. Just 72 reportable events were “open” (awaiting resolution) in the last quarter of data. OfS received 150 and resolved 162, a credible effort and the highest number of resolutions on record.

These days notifications are resolved in a maximum of 44 days – OfS received 90 and resolved 96, leaving just 38 open (the lowest since the notification boom that happened in 2023).

Though the temptation to shrug at these numbers is high, this does all suggest that the responsive regulator we were once promised is starting to emerge. It has taken the closure of registration and a rumoured all-hands-on-deck approach to get the system moving, but in difficult times for many it is good to know that the phone is being answered.

What’s being said is, of course, another question entirely. I’d love to see an element of provider feedback embedded into these measures, perhaps some means of seeing whether issues are being resolved to the satisfaction of those who submitted them.