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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. 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, 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>In
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. In addition, 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. Cases that have taken longer to assess have typically
involved several attempts to obtain relevant information from the provider. The risk
assessment also suggests 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.
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>
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