OfS escalates oversight of subcontracted provision, and why student feedback evidence matters

By Student Voice AI

Published Feb 20, 2026 · Updated Feb 20, 2026

On 5 February 2026, the Office for Students (OfS) announced additional regulatory requirements for RTC Education Ltd (trading as Regent College London) and the University of Greater Manchester, following a quality assessment of subcontracted Business Management provision. We are sharing this because it is a practical reminder that quality regulation often turns on everyday student experience evidence: assessment feedback, learning resources, staffing stability, and whether concerns are identified and acted on early. [OfS press release]

"Wherever and however they study, students must have confidence they’re getting the high quality academic experience they were promised." Jean Arnold, Interim Director of Quality and Access, OfS

What has changed

RTC Education Ltd has been placed into enhanced monitoring, meaning the OfS will require additional information and will carry out further quality assessment to check progress against regulatory requirements.

The University of Greater Manchester has been made subject to a new specific ongoing condition (Condition BB). This requires the university to strengthen how it manages its subcontractual arrangement(s) so that students receive a high quality academic experience and the provider can demonstrate ongoing compliance with OfS conditions B1, B2 and B4.

The regulatory case report sets out concerns identified through the quality assessment, including staffing capacity and high turnover, inconsistent access to core learning resources, and problems in the assessment process. In particular, the assessment team considered that students often did not receive feedback within expected timeframes, limiting how far assessment feedback could support learning and progression. [Regulatory case report, PDF]

For sector colleagues, the detail is less about the specific provider names and more about the pattern: in subcontracted provision, the awarding provider’s oversight needs to be demonstrably effective, not just documented.

What this means for institutions

First, this case reinforces that student experience risk is often visible in routine feedback data before it becomes a formal regulatory issue. Themes like delayed marking and feedback, unclear assessment processes, inconsistent module resources, and dissatisfaction with physical learning environments are exactly the kinds of issues students describe in open-text comments. If you are relying on a small sample of comments, or reading them only after the reporting cycle closes, you are likely to miss early warning signals.

Second, for institutions with franchised or subcontracted delivery, student voice evidence needs to work across partner boundaries. That means consistent questions, consistent data governance, and a comparable way of analysing comments across sites and delivery organisations. In practice, awarding providers often need to bring together NSS, internal module evaluation, complaints themes, and partner-run pulse surveys into a single view, so that risk is spotted and acted on quickly.

Third, there are clear operational implications around assessment and feedback. Even where policies set turnaround expectations, the student experience depends on delivery consistency and visible service levels. If you cannot quickly evidence that feedback timeliness is being monitored, and that action is being taken when performance dips, it becomes harder to make a credible case that quality concerns are under control.

How student feedback analysis connects

At Student Voice AI, we see open-text comments used in two complementary ways in quality work: as an early-warning system (surfacing issues that may not yet be visible in metrics), and as traceable evidence (showing what changed, for whom, and whether sentiment moved after interventions).

Structured analysis helps because it turns thousands of comments into a repeatable view of priority themes such as assessment and feedback, learning resources, teaching contact, student support, and facilities. That is particularly valuable when you need to compare like-for-like across partners, campuses, cohorts, and disciplines, and when you need to produce an evidence pack that stands up to internal audit and external scrutiny.

FAQ

Q: What should institutions do now if they have subcontracted or franchised provision?

A: Start by stress-testing your oversight cycle against the basics: are you getting timely student feedback (including open text) from every delivery site, are you analysing it consistently, and can you show an action log with owners and dates? For assessment and feedback in particular, set visible service levels (turnaround and feedback usefulness), monitor performance term-by-term, and publish “you said, we did” updates so students can see changes.

Q: What is the timeline for the additional requirements in this case?

A: The OfS regulatory case report was published on 5 February 2026. The University of Greater Manchester is required to submit a report detailing how it will implement Condition BB by 14 July 2026, and to have the measures implemented by 14 January 2027. RTC Education Ltd is being taken into enhanced monitoring, which includes ongoing information requests and further quality assessment by the OfS.

Q: What does this signal about how student voice will be used in quality regulation?

A: It underlines that student voice is not just a communications exercise. Quality assessments and regulatory decisions can turn on whether institutions can demonstrate that students are receiving the academic experience promised, and that problems are being identified and fixed. In practice, that makes governed, traceable analysis of qualitative feedback increasingly important, especially in complex delivery models involving partners.

References

[Office for Students]: "RTC Education Ltd and University of Greater Manchester subject to additional regulatory requirements following quality assessment"
Published: 2026-02-05

[Office for Students]: "Regulatory case report for RTC Education Ltd and University of Greater Manchester (B1, B2 and B4)"
Published: 2026-02-05

[Office for Students]: "Quality assessment report, Business Management, subcontracted provision at Regent College London delivered on behalf of University of Bolton and Buckinghamshire New University"
Published: 2024-10-03

Request a walkthrough

Book a free Student Voice Analytics demo

See all-comment coverage, sector benchmarks, and reporting designed for OfS quality and NSS requirements.

All-comment coverage with HE-tuned taxonomy and sentiment.
Versioned outputs with TEF-ready reporting.
Benchmarks and BI-ready exports for boards and Senate.

Prefer email? info@studentvoice.ai

UK-hosted · No public LLM APIs · Same-day turnaround