PARTIALLY ACCEPT Higher education providers are responsible for managing their finances. As part of this, providers must have robust contingency planning in place to protect students in an insolvency scenario. As insolvency is rarely sudden, all providers - including franchisees and lead providers - should monitor their financial position closely and take all possible steps to avoid reaching that point, with a clear focus on minimising disruption to students’ studies and outcomes. The Office for Students undertakes a structured and data-driven approach to identifying financial management risks, using lead indicators, reportable events, and wider intelligence. This is a comprehensive monitoring framework that enables both routine oversight and escalation where risks increase. Should a provider - including a franchisee - risk insolvency, the Office for Students’ role is to work with the franchisee and the lead provider to protect its students’ interests as far as possible. As part of the Government’s renewed International Education Strategy, we will identify and remove barriers to sustainable transnational education growth and support UK institutions to engage with opportunities. As part of this we will continue to promote high quality transnational education provision through sectorled action plans and raising awareness of risks to support UK institutions in managing risks effectively. This includes risks to our national security, e.g. from foreign interference. This is why the DfE are working with the Office for Students to set clearer expectations around international risk management, raise awareness of risks and develop good practice advice. We have announced our new Academic Interference Reporting Route and issued additional guidance to help students and staff identify concerns and know how to escalate issues. This guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/protecting-uk-higher-education-from-foreign-interference. We have also announced we will be investing £3m to bolster existing support and access to expert advice for the sector.