Response to the OFFA strategic plan consultation

15 December 2014

The Office for Fair Access strategic plan should take into account the diversity of higher education in England and make clear the importance of institutional autonomy.

In our response to the consultation on the new strategic plan for the Office for Fair Access (OFFA), we highlight the need for OFFA to take into account the diversity of higher education institutions and to allow universities to implement policies or programmes in line with their own strategic mission and access agreements.

The benchmarks used to assess fair access are fundamentally flawed and this needs to be taken into account when evaluating institutional performance indicators.  Additionally, a more streamlined approach to data collection would be of considerable benefit in reducing the duplication of effort for universities.

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