OfS dashboard release schedules: checking dates before reusing benchmarks

Updated Sep 07, 2026

Updated 7 September 2026: OfS’s current release schedule lists its annual student access, outcome and experience data updates for autumn 2026. It plans to expand the TEF and student outcomes dashboard to include sector distributions and subcontractual partnership outcomes in one resource. That would replace the need for separate publications of those dashboards. OfS release schedule.

What changed in the schedule

The current schedule links the timing to proposed quality-regulation reforms and an expected further consultation in autumn 2026. It says OfS expects to return to spring publication in future years. These remain planned releases, not confirmation that the expanded data are already available.

The update history records postponement of the sector-distribution dashboard in December 2025. It does not substantiate our earlier attribution of that decision to 23 February 2026; that entry concerns a different statistical release. Our original spring-2026 wording should no longer be used as the current timetable. Schedule and update history.

A practical check for committee papers

Our suggestion is to identify the exact file or dashboard version behind each chart. Record its retrieval date, student cohort, survey year, measures and any limitations stated on the source page. Keep the data period distinct from the date you downloaded it.

Before replacing an older chart, check whether the new release changes the measure, population or presentation. A current internal survey can provide useful context while an external release is pending, but it does not create an equivalent external benchmark.

Where student comments are used alongside the figures, state what they can support. They may identify reported experiences for investigation; they do not supply a missing denominator, repair a statistical calculation or prove the cause of a change.

The NSS open-text methodology and comment governance checklist cover related interpretation choices. For release timing, continue to use the official schedule rather than a historic news summary.

Correction and update, 7 September 2026: removed the unsupported February attribution and quotation, replaced the outdated timetable with the current official schedule, and removed an unverified dashboard-threshold detail. The original publication date and URL are preserved.