New regulations came into effect on 19 May 2026 to implement the requirement for franchised providers of a certain size to register with the OfS in order for their courses to be designated eligible for student finance for new students from academic year 28/29. The regulations apply to England only.
The Education (Student Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 remove from the 2011 student support regulations one of the previous course designation criteria that a course is “provided by a registered or unregistered provider on behalf of a registered provider in England”. This designation criterion now remains available only where the course begins before 1 September 2028.
For a course commencing on or after 1 September 2028 to be designated, the course needs to be provided by a ‘qualifying franchised provider’ (or multiple qualifying franchised providers), on behalf of a registered provider in England (assuming one of the other designation routes doesn’t apply).
‘Franchised provider’ gets its own definition. Under the regulations, a “franchised provider” is a provider which delivers or teaches the course, or part of the course, to students who are registered at a registered provider in England and does so on behalf of that registered provider. Readers of our series of franchising blogs will note that this is different from the definition of ‘relevant sub-contractual arrangement’ in Condition E10 and from the definition of ‘subcontractual arrangement’ in the OfS framework (which also differ from each other).
In order to be a qualifying franchised provider (and meet the new requirement for course designation for courses commencing on or after 1 September 2028), the franchised provider needs to be:
(a) an exempt franchised provider;
(b) a below-threshold franchised provider; or
(c) a registered provider.
The list of exemptions for an exempt franchised provider is limited and specific and includes unregistered franchised providers who are entities such as certain schools, further education institutions and NHS trusts. To be a below-threshold franchised provider, an unregistered franchised provider needs to be (a) not exempt and (b) have a student population of less than 300 ‘franchised students’ as calculated by rules set out in the regulations. The regulations also include a definition of “franchised student” which in broad terms is where more than 50% of the provision to the student (whether modules, credits, credit points or other units of the course) is, or may be, taught by one or more franchised providers (including where the franchised providers themselves subcontract their provision). The student must also be registered to study on a course with a registered provider in England. Any other franchised providers will need to register. Franchised providers that are group undertakings are treated as a single provider when calculating their student population.
The regulations also set out how decisions will be made about provider student numbers, how decisions will be notified, how they may be appealed and when designation may be revoked. There is a transitional provision that provides for franchised providers to be treated as qualifying franchised providers for the academic year starting 1 September 2028 where they haven’t received a final decision before 1 September 2027 – they need to have submitted an application for registration by midnight on 30 June and the OfS must have confirmed before 1 September 2027 that the application meets its criteria. There are also provisions on transitional appeals.
What does this mean for providers and universities?
Franchised providers caught by the registration requirement will need to be taking steps now to meet the registration application deadline of 30 June 2026, and universities will want to make sure that the franchised providers they are working with are registered, exempt or applying for registration in good time. Universities should also be considering the implications if a provider doesn’t obtain registration or if course designation is revoked and the provider is subject to a correction year at any time. Universities whose academic staff are employed by a university subsidiary should give careful thought to whether the subsidiary may be deemed a franchised provider pursuant to the new regulations – and, if so, whether the subsidiary will need to submit a registration application by the above deadline.
If we can be of any assistance in connection with the new registration requirements or any of these issues please do get in touch.
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