Report

A partnership accountability framework for a more resilient higher education sector

This report from UK think tank HEPI calls for a partnership accountability framework to protect students and standards.

A new HEPI Policy Note by Vicki Stott, A partnership accountability framework for a more resilient higher education sector (HEPI Policy Note 73), warns that rapid growth in franchised and other partnership provision is colliding with financial fragility and uneven regulation, putting academic standards, student protection, and public confidence at risk.

The author notes that the most visible problems have centred on franchised provision in England, where student numbers have more than doubled in recent years and where a high proportion of detected Student Loans Company fraud has occurred, but stresses that the underlying challenges extend across validation arrangements, other forms of collaborative provision and some transnational education. While partnerships remain vital for widening participation, local access and specialist delivery, the paper concludes that the sector has tolerated too much ambiguity about who is accountable for key decisions, what data are needed to manage risk and how students will be protected if partnerships fail.

The paper argues that the UK does not lack principles for managing partnerships but lacks an operational model that can cope with a harsher financial and regulatory environment. It proposes a practical partnership accountability framework built around four elements: a clear lifecycle for partnerships; a functional accountability matrix; a regulatory mapping layer; and a failure‑and‑recovery model with clear triggers for intervention.

The proposed framework should be sector‑owned and adaptable, rooted in the 2024 UK Quality Code for Higher Education but going beyond existing guidance by specifying how institutions should allocate responsibilities, gather and use data, and plan for failure and recovery. It calls on providers, regulators and sector bodies across all four UK nations to strengthen operational use of the Quality Code in partnership settings, sharpen risk‑based oversight and reform the way higher‑risk franchising and data are handled.