As concerns about the financial stability of the higher education sector amidst the coronavirus outbreak deepen, the Office for Students (OfS), the independent regulator for higher education in England, has finished consulting on a wave of new measures designed to address any instability.

Universities have been hit hard by the loss of international students, and in Cambridge the Colleges have predicted an “immediate loss in income of about £35 million” due to the pandemic.

The OfS has voiced concern that Universities may significantly lower their offers or engage in aggressive and predatory marketing strategies to attract more students in an effort to make up for budgetary shortfalls.

Universities that adopt more aggressive marketing strategies or proactively lower grade boundaries may outcompete other institutions, potentially leading to student shortfalls, financial losses and the posibility of collapse.

It currently appears that the University is not pursuing any formal measures to increase the number of students. A spokesperson for the University told Varsity that “there has been very little change to our marketing and recruitment strategies other than to say that a lot of activity has now moved online”.

Finn Cormican, student representative for the School of Arts and Humanities, said that “so far I have heard nothing from any of the heads of faculties or School staff regarding changes to admissions procedures”.

Cormican went on to say that, in regards to increasing student numbers “I’d push for this not to happen in too significant a way. We wouldn’t want a situation where the University had more students than it’s physical capacity allowed, as this could detract from the quality of teaching, and lead to huge logistical problems when everyone returned.”

Concerns regarding what life may be like for students upon their return have grown more pressing as the necessary reality of continued social distancing measures becomes more apparent.

Universities UK recently published a briefing detailing how students may be restricted to small social groups or a ‘protective bubble’ in the coming year. Overcrowding would not only make safe teaching harder but place severe restrictions on social life for students.

Yet, formal measures are not the only ways in which the University may seek to increase student numbers. An anonymous source in the Faculty of Mathematics, when asked whether the Faculty were making any changes to offers, told Varsity “formally, no - A level requirements won’t be lowered and neither will STEP (the typical offer is Grade 1 in both STEP 2 and STEP 3)”.

STEP is the Sixth Form Examination Paper in mathematics which constitutes an advanced mathematics paper in which undergraduate applicants for mathematics must achieve certain grades, in addition to their A levels. The paper is required for maths applicants to Cambridge and the University of Warwick.

The source also stated, “however, in a typical year roughly 1/3 of all students accepted onto the Maths Tripos narrowly missed their STEP offers (often Grade 1 in STEP 2 and Grade 2 in STEP 3) - in these cases, colleges usually make decisions on a case-by-case basis and have the unique advantage of being able to directly access candidates’ STEP scripts to help them make their decisions”.

They furthered that “there have been discussions about how colleges might take greater care when examining the results of a candidate who has narrowly missed their offer. In particular, the Faculty has been advising colleges to make greater use of contextual data, which is being provided, when making decisions (e.g. whether a candidate goes to a state or private school)”.

The source was unable to clarify specifically what ‘greater care’ referred to.

Such informal measures lack clear guidelines on how colleges are supposed to make use of contextual information and may risk unfairly disadvantaging some applicants. It also remains unclear whether this practice would be prohibited under the proposed rules.

On May 4th, in a move backed by the Department for Education, the OfS published its ‘Consultation on the integrity and stability of the English higher education sector’. In the consultation, which closed on the 26th May, the OfS proposed implementing a time-limited condition of registration which will place tight restrictions on Universities application and recruitment strategies.

At the end of May, the Guardian reported that Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan, is ‘determined to constrain universities’ after governmental data suggested that 30,000 grade-dependent offers had been switched to unconditional since the emergeance of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The proposed rules would allow the OFS to implement fines large enough to ‘cancel out any financial benefit to providers of acting inappropriately’ and to ‘intervene’, changing or revoking offers if necessary.

According to the OfS the new rule ‘is designed to ensure that universities and colleges act in the interests of students and the wider higher education sector during these unprecedented times’.

However, the powers, which could come into effect in early June, are seemingly vague and wide-reaching. The OfS states that ‘the proposed condition is principles-based’ and as such the OFS ‘cannot give a university or college advice on a specific behaviour or course of action’.

The consultation states that the proposed powers will ‘prevent providers from engaging in any form of conduct which, in the view of the OfS, could reasonably have a material negative effect on the interests of students and the stability and/or integrity of all or part of the English higher education sector’ which includes present students, those applying in 2020, and future students.

Despite commitments by Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education Graham Virgo to physically “get as many students in Cambridge as we possibly can”, it remains unclear to what extent, if any, Cambridge will be affected by the changes.

It also seems unlikely that Cambridge will be affected by rules regarding the lowering of offers.

Cambridge has been experiencing a steady growth in the number of applications made and offers given. Over the last five years, Undergraduate applications have risen from 16,750 to 20,422, and the total number of offers given has risen from 4,307 to 4,701.

Uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic has gripped every aspect of University life and both current and prospective students are deeply concerned about the future of their institutions.

Yet, despite the uncertainty, Cormican told Varsity that he hopes “that the University should continue to take a holistic view of applications - and to understand that many more of their offer holders may be undergoing exceptional or difficult circumstances than in other years.

“This is a good time for compassion”, he added.