Franchise players

MPs raise further concerns about higher education franchising agreements

It was in January this year that the National Audit Office raised concerns about the amount of fraud detected by the Student Loans Company that related to provision at franchised higher education providers.

According to the NAO, 53 per cent of the £4.1 million in fraud identified by the SLC in 2022-23 was at franchised providers, even though franchised degrees account for only 4.7 per cent of the student population in England. The report raised concerns that the fraud was “potentially associated with organised crime”.