Part 1: The Office for Students Information and choice for students
This Act makes provision for a quality rating scheme. This will be delivered through the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), as promised in the Conservative Manifesto of 2015, to provide clear information to students about where the best higher education provision can be found with the intention of driving up the standard of teaching in all universities. The TEF is intended to provide clear, understandable information to students about where teaching quality is outstanding and to establish a robust framework for gathering information to measure teaching in its broadest sense.
	This Act requires the Secretary of State, within one year of the commencement of section 25, to commission an independent review of the operation of the TEF. This Act also allows fee caps to be set at differing levels based on a provider’s TEF award, subject to overall limits which will be prescribed by regulations scrutinised by Parliament. However, differentiated fees based on providers’ TEF awards cannot be introduced until academic year 2020/21.
	This Act enables the Secretary of State to make regulations to implement a higher fee cap for accelerated courses. It also gives the OfS a power to monitor the availability of student transfer schemes provided by registered higher education providers, and a power to facilitate, encourage or promote awareness of such schemes.