Findings and response following quality assessment of business and management courses

Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) accepts the thorough findings of the Office for Students’ (OfS) investigation into the quality of business and management courses provided by RTC Education Ltd (trading as Regent College London) through a partnership arrangement with BNU. 

We acknowledge that, as the awarding partner, the University was in breach of conditions B2 and B4 at the time of the assessment which began in May 2022 and related to the 2022-23 academic year.

We welcome recognition from the OfS that BNU has ‘engaged positively’ and ‘responded to the concerns of the assessment team in a manner consistent with 
[our] responsibilities as the awarding partner’, and that the University’s decision to terminate the partnership with RTC Education Ltd in May 2025 ‘significantly’
lowered the associated risk.

The OfS refers to the ‘detailed information’ provided by BNU about the ‘sufficiently reassuring’ actions taken in response to the assessment report which include:

• Conducting campus visits to review teaching and learning facilities, classrooms and furniture 
• Identifying and resolving missing core texts
• Training to provide module leaders with a clear understanding of assessment and expectations for student learning
• Implementing teaching observation and feedback

Professor Damien Page, Vice-Chancellor at BNU said: “Identifying and tackling historic issues with partnership provision has been my unwavering priority since becoming Vice-Chancellor in February 2025, with the actions taken by my new executive team already resulting in an 85% reduction of historical partnerships.

“BNU terminated our partnership with Regent College London in May 2025, and we take very seriously our responsibility to ensure that all students in the ‘teach out’ phase receive a high quality education. We continue to work closely with the College’s senior leadership team to maintain what the OfS recognises as the
‘improvements already made by BNU’ which ‘remedied’ the breach of condition B2 and B4 in the 2022-23 academic year.

“The OfS has confirmed that no further regulatory action will be taken because of the actions we’ve taken in response to the quality assessment report.”