This is some of the regulatory guidance relevant to Higher Education Providers.
Please note it is not an exhaustive list and we need your support to add in content and to ensure the information is correct - please do get in touch with Lisa to share updates, make corrections and suggest additions to the list.
Condition of Registration A.2
Related to B Conditions
Internal obligation required by the OfS (may return to statutory obligation)
The Athena Swan Charter is a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research.
Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Charter is now being used across the globe to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.
The Concordat to Support Research Integrity is the UK’s national policy statement on research integrity. The Concordat sets out five commitments that those engaged in research must make to help ensure that the highest standards of rigour and integrity are maintained. These key commitments apply to researchers, their employers and funding bodies alike, and are a condition of grants from many research funders, including UK Research & Innovation.
The GHG is the most well-used international measuring and reporting framework for greenhouse gas and associated emissions. The corporate reporting standard was first launched in 2001 and is updated on a regular basis. The GHG protocol forms the basis for many other reporting standards, including the sector’s own SECR.
ISO 45001 is an international standard for health and safety at work developed by national and international standards committees independent of government.
Implementing ISO 45001 may help your organisation demonstrate compliance with health and safety law. But, in some respects, it goes beyond what the law requires, so consider carefully whether to adopt it.
If your organisation already has a developed health and safety management structure, or you're familiar with other management standards, it may be straightforward for you to adopt ISO 45001.
The Treasury requires all other central government departments to undertake sustainability reporting as part of the Greening Government Commitments (GGC), and in line with the government’s Financial Reporting guidance (FReM). It takes a significant steer from TCFD requirements and, along with SECR, is clear, existing public sector reporting that it is reasonable to assume will inform the basis for any future regulatory requirements for the HE sector.
The British Council, the Quality Assurance Agency and the UK Council for International Student Affairs all provide guidance on the use of international agents.
Jointly established by the British Universities’ International Liaison Association (BUILA), Universities UK International (UUKi), UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) and the British Council, the Agent Quality Framework recognises the critical role that agents and counsellors play in attracting and supporting international students wishing to study in the UK, providing a set of free tools to equip education providers, agents, and students with the knowledge and best practice to maintain quality partnerships across the international student recruitment journey.
IESG is a partnership of internationally-operating universities across the globe (mainly UK/Europe and Australia/NZ), with a particular emphasis on climate and sustainability in international education. The CAB is a voluntary, intentionally low-cost/resource benchmark that tracks and compares the policies, practices, and emissions for international education over time.
As of 2021, all financial accounts prepared by UK entities (including HEPs, through the sector’s Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP)) are done so in accordance with IFRS. Financial accounts are designed to provide investors and stakeholders with an accurate
picture of an organisations current and forecasted financial position and viability. The impacts of climate change and environmental breakdown can pose a risk to financial sustainability, and so should be considered as part of financial reporting frameworks. The most recent IFRS guidance and sustainability standards (S1 & S2) explain what universities (and all other entities) should consider and report on.
The International Student Barometer (ISB) is the world’s largest international student experience survey of enrolled students.
The ISB is used by Higher Education institutions, membership bodies, networks and national governments around the world to provide global benchmarking for the student experience.
Links with UKRI
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement which aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way.
he UK ABS Regulations apply to any company, organisation or individual (the user) conducting research and development on genetic resources and / or aTK where the genetic resources and / or aTK:
Links with G.2 Conditions of Service
The Policy aims to ensure that findings from research funded by the public through UKRI can be freely accessed, used and built on.
This policy applies to publications which need to acknowledge funding from UKRI or any of its councils. This includes funding from:
The policy applies to:
PSRBs are a diverse group of professional bodies, employer bodies, regulators and those with statutory authority over a profession or group of professionals.
They set the standards for, and regulate entry into given professions, and are authorised to accredit, approve or recognise specific Higher Education programmes leading to the relevant professional qualification/s for which they may have a statutory or regulatory responsibility.
Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter helps institutions in their work to identify and address the barriers facing Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and students, while also providing a framework for action and improvement. Institutions can apply for a bronze or silver award, depending on their progress.
The Standardised Carbon Emissions reporting framework (Net Zero Reporting) brings together good practice and guidance and will develop a fuller understanding of how institutions contribute to the climate emergency and enable them to take action.
The SLS is a sector initiative developed by AUDE and EAUC, to provide a sustainability performance benchmark service for further and higher
education providers. The SLS comprises 18 key measures across four areas: Leadership, Estates & Operations, Partnership & Engagement, and Learning, Teaching & Research. The service is made up of provider submissions, as well as data drawn automatically from the HESA estates / EMR record.
TCFD is a global initiative to produce a framework for how organisations monitor and report on their nature-related risks and opportunities. It has a broad range of global supporters, including the UK government. As the name also suggests, the framework adopts a similar approach to TCFD, covering Governance, Strategy, Risk/Impact Management, and Metrics.
The TPT is a UK government initiative set up following COP26 to support its efforts to make Transition Plans mandatory for businesses.
Transition Plans are a strategic document that explain how organisations will remain financially sustainable and thrive as the global economy transitions to net-zero. The TPT disclosure framework was published in 2023, and builds on IFRS (S1 and S2) and TCFD among other frameworks, and aims to be sector neutral.
The concordat is a joint initiative amongst the UK Research and Innovation (R&I) sector, and hosted by the Wellcome Trust, where signatories must ensure research is undertaken under an agreed set of sustainability guidelines. Amongst other things, the initiative includes a focus on sustainability leadership, establishing new ways of collaborative working, and circular economy principles.
https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/environmental-sustainability-concordat
