65 Virtual Brochure – March 2025 5. CEothripcoarlaDteecGisoivoenrMnaankciengFailures in Accountability and Executive Summary While the higher education sector, regulators, and the government grapple with potential longer-term solutions to higher education funding, it is essential that governing bodies provide effective scrutiny and challenge to secure the medium- and longer-term financial sustainability of their institutions. This needs to be predicated on accurate data, prudent forecasting and stretching scenario modelling. Crucially, it’s also dependent on a governance culture founded on ethical principles which enables genuinely open and honest debate that holds institutional leaders to account. The Office for Students (OfS) has been vocal about the necessity for effective governance to support and enable institutional financial sustainability. In particular, the OfS has highlighted the risks of governing bodies placing too much reliance on strategies predicated on growth in student numbers, reducing headcount, and postponing spend on capital projects, when more challenging scenario modelling and contingency planning is required1. The OfS has previously signalled2 that it intends to consult on the conditions of registration which relate to institutional governance although this has not yet materialised. When this consultation takes place, it is likely to draw on not only observed behaviours on the management of risks to financial sustainability but also on the findings from major public inquiries into governance failures. These include the Post Office IT Horizon Inquiry, the Covid 19 Public Inquiry, the Grenfell Inquiry and the Infected Blood Inquiry. This briefing note examines some corporate governance issues being uncovered by the inquiries and how these may inform discussions around effective governance in Higher Education and concludes with some key questions for Boards. 1 https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/navigating-financial-challenges-in-higher-education/ 2 Office for Students Strategy 2022 to 2025. OfS 2022.15
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