Vikki Howells MS, Minister for Further and Higher Education
The Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (‘TERA 2022’) provides for the establishment of a new registration model for tertiary education providers, providing a flexible mechanism for accountable, but proportionate, oversight of the tertiary education sector in Wales.
TERA 2022, together with Regulations under the Act, provides the legislative framework for a regulatory regime which will be developed by Medr – the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research – working with the sector and the Welsh Government to develop its own expectations of providers to satisfy the regulatory requirements.
The register will replace the higher education regulatory oversight regime previously operated by HEFCW and provides the legal mechanisms to regulate higher education providers in receipt of grant funding from Medr and Welsh Government student support.
I am pleased to announce that I have made the first two statutory instruments required to enable Medr to continue its work to establish the register, namely the:
- The Commission for Tertiary Education and Research (Registration and De-registration of Tertiary Education Providers in Wales) Regulations 2024 (‘the registration Regulations’)
- The Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (Designation of Providers) Regulations 2024 (‘the designation Regulations’)
The registration Regulations make provision in respect of two categories of registration – higher education core and higher education alternative, and specify that providers registered in the higher education core category are eligibility to receive financial support from the Commission for the purposes of higher education, research or innovation.
The registration Regulations also provide for further initial conditions of registration, further mandatory ongoing registration conditions, specify the information that must be included in a provider’s entry in the register and further circumstances in which the Commission must remove a registered provider from a category of the register.
The designation Regulations detail the basis on which a provider of tertiary education in Wales, who is not an ‘institution’, can make an application to the Welsh Ministers to be designated as one, for the purpose of TERA 2022.
In order to apply for registration a provider will need to be a tertiary education provider in Wales, which means an ‘institution’ providing tertiary education, including tertiary education provided on its behalf, whose activities are wholly or mainly carried on in Wales.
Designation as an “institution” will not in itself confer any benefits on a provider of tertiary education in Wales other than enabling them to satisfy the requirement to be a “tertiary education provider in Wales” in order for them to make an application for registration.
The intention is for the register to be established by Medr during 2026, with a number of the registration conditions in respect of quality, governance, financial management and staff and student welfare applying from the time of a provider’s registration. Full implementation of the registration system, including its interface with student support will then be in place for the 2027/28 academic year.
This approach allows adequate time to make the necessary subordinate legislation; for Medr to undertake its implementation activities, and for providers to apply and be entered onto the register in a timely manner. In addition, it will allow Medr to provide the wider sector, individual providers and of course learners, with clarity as to exactly what is being implemented and the expectations to be placed on registered providers.
Whilst the registration system provides for the regulation of higher education in Wales, the regulation of further education and training will continue through terms and conditions of funding with TERA 2022 providing for synergy between the registration conditions and terms and conditions of funding.