The Higher Education Better Regulation Group (HEBRG) was established in 2009 as the successor to the Higher Education Regulation Review Group (HERRG). The current group was funded initially on a two-year basis, until the end of 2011.

Following the HEBRG members meeting in November 2011, it was agreed that HEBRG has an increasingly important role to play in the changing environment for higher education in the UK and that it should therefore continue to operate. Given the uncertainties which currently surround the nature of the regulatory environment, and the fact that the future design of the framework is still the subject of consultation, HEBRG will continue largely in its present form for a further two years.

HEBRG will continue to be jointly funded and supported by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland, Universities UK, and GuildHE.  

Sir Graeme Catto will step down as Chair at the end of 2011. HEBRG is very grateful to Sir Graeme for his excellent leadership over the past two years.  New arrangements for staffing and resources will be in place by early 2012.

Regulation is one of the most significant issues facing the UK higher education sector. As the sector moves into the new set of funding arrangements, the environment in which universities will be operating is likely to be substantially different – characterised by more market-based features, together with a broad move towards deregulation.

As the regulatory environment for higher education changes, HEBRG will not only need to keep under review the impact of new regulation, but will also have a key role to play in ensuring that regulations are applied consistently both to new and existing providers. It is also the case that changes to funding policy mean that the sector will become increasingly exposed to existing legislation and regulation regarding business operation – for example, competition law and fair trading.

Further information is available from Paul Clark, Director of Policy, Universities UK: paul.clark@universitiesuk.ac.uk.