UUK Initial Draft Framework on VfM Statements

Universities UK (UUK) recently published an initial draft framework to support the development of value for money statements. It offers suggestions about how to present financial information to students. This guidance fills an obvious vacuum and offers the sector a solution to a pressing problem. The OfS is a new regulator and its approach remains largely unknown, but we fear that the UUK framework risks being a misinterpretation of the question set by the OfS.

In this briefing note, we offer a critique of the framework and where it may fall short of OfS expectations and suggest alternative approaches.