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<p>There is no meaningful average time for higher education establishments receiving
an outcome on their Office for Students (OfS) registration application. This is because
the time taken from initial receipt of the application to a final registration decision
is dependent on a number of factors.</p><p> </p><p>These factors include the completeness
of the application initially submitted, the scale of the clarificatory information
requested by the assessor during the assessment process and the length of time taken
by the provider to respond to such information requests. In addition, other factors
include the time taken for the provider’s access and participation plan to be negotiated
and approved and the likelihood of the provider to breach its ongoing conditions of
registration, including the ways in which that would impact its students. Furthermore,
consideration is also given to the overall readiness of the provider to be regulated.</p><p>
</p><p>Cases where decisions that have been reached more quickly often relate to circumstances
where the provider has submitted a near-complete application or where queries during
the assessment have been minimal. More timely decisions can be made where the risk
assessment suggests that the provider is unlikely to breach any of its ongoing conditions
of registration.</p><p> </p><p>Cases that have taken longer to assess have typically
involved several attempts to obtain relevant information from the provider.</p><p>
</p><p>The risk assessment may also suggest either that the provider does not satisfy
one or more initial conditions of registration (in which case the provider may make
representations against the proposed decision to refuse registration), or that the
provider may be at increased risk of breaching one or more of its ongoing conditions
of registration, once registered.</p><p> </p><p>In these cases, the OfS is likely
to conclude that the interests of students are best protected by taking regulatory
action with which the provider must comply, such as applying specific conditions of
registration or enhanced monitoring arrangements. Such occurrences would lengthen
the timeframe for a decision on an application.</p><p> </p><p>The OfS will be publishing
an analysis of the key themes that arose during the initial registration process in
the autumn.</p>
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