BNU terminates partnership contract with London School of Science and Technology

Upon his appointment as Vice-Chancellor in February 2025, Professor Damien Page secured approval from Council (the governing body) to reduce BNU’s partner provision by 50% and remove the University’s reliance on this activity.

Prof Page’s new leadership team has been reviewing all partnerships and has taken the decision to terminate the University’s contract with the London School of Science and Technology.

The Office for Students was informed of the termination on 4th June, 2025 and BNU will enact its Student Protection Plan to ensure that its students at LSST are supported in completing their studies.

At the end of May, the University also decided to terminate its contract with Regent College London.

A new University Collaborations Committee has been established to oversee all partnership proposals which must now be approved by Council.

An external auditor has also been commissioned to investigate the historic issues which have been unearthed relating to Oxford Business College (whose contract has also been terminated), and to establish if poor practice extends to other partners. The findings are due at the end of June and any evidence of wrongdoing will be shared with the relevant authorities.

There remains a place at BNU for smaller, high-quality partnerships and transnational collaborations. University Council has recently approved three new proposals to go forward for further due diligence.

Professor Damien Page said: “Terminating these partnerships means that BNU will become more secure in the long term, creating a future that is dependent only upon our own work, our own innovations and our own ambitions, free of the risks that large partnerships can bring. It means that we can become even more focused on growing core numbers and smaller, ethical partnerships, even more focused on providing an exceptional experience for our students and challenging the status quo of the HE sector.”