Student Protection Plan

Student Protection Plan

1. Purpose

Central’s Student Protection Plan exists to help you as applicants or students to understand the steps we will take to support you in an event that there is a risk to the commencement or continuation of your studies. The reasons or instances which might cause such a risk are laid out within this plan.

This plan has been approved by the UK higher education regulator, the Office for Students (OfS)1, and is publically available to all current and potential students.

All measures contained within this plan are in addition to the protections you have under consumer protection law, and will impinge on your consumer rights.

2. Our commitments to you as a student

In seeking to follow good practice, we commit to2:

  • Being transparent and fair with you in the event that there are serious risks to your studies with us
  • Informing you of these risks in a timely manner, making clear to you the Schools policies and processes in place to support you during this time
  • Taking steps to ensure that, where programmes or disciplines will no longer be delivered by Central, the remainder of your studies is secured and that a public record is maintained of the programme
  • Consulting students before deciding to implement any substantial changes to a programme or discontinuing it
  • Ensuring that the needs of students and the impact of any proposed changes are taken into consideration and inform the measures taken to protect students as far as possible
  • Informing the OfS of any changes that may necessitate a review of the plan or any of the measures contained within it.

3. Why is this plan necessary?

In designing and seeking approval for this plan, we have worked with our regulator, the OfS, to ensure it addresses our specific circumstances. We offer specialised, intensive training in drama, and our programmes are subject to a range of quality assurance measures to ensure that our programmes meet UK standards for higher education, as well as to ensure our programmes remain current and offer quality learning opportunities. These include:

  • Annual monitoring of programmes, led by Course Leaders and their teams
  • Periodic review of programmes, providing an opportunity to consider the progress and future of a programme over a 5-6 year period
  • Student surveys (e.g. at the end of units, or formal surveys such as the National Student Survey)
  • Student representation and course committees

We are confident that the quality assurance measures in place enable us to respond effectively to issues programmes encounter, as well as to build on the best elements within them. However, certain factors may lead to Central not being able to offer a programme for a specific period of time, or ultimately to make the unfortunate decision to discontinue a programme.

4. What type of events will prompt this student protection plan?

This plan will be triggered if:

  • We have to suspend the upcoming intake of your intended programme of study3
  • We have to discontinue your specific programme4
  • We stop teaching this specific disciplinary field
  • We decide to cease operating altogether
  • We can no longer provide the course to you for any other reason, for example
    • We cease operating through no choice of our own
    • We lose the right to provide the course or qualification (for instance, if the programme is accredited)
    • We lose our ability to sponsor international students via our tier 4 licence

We retain the right to make minor adjustments and improvements to programme, course and module content year on year, and these changes in themselves do not warrant the triggering of student protection measures. Principally, we made modifications to programmes in this way to enhance your experience. However, if you feel the course as delivered varies significantly from what you expected, you are able to make a complaint through our internal procedures and may be able to seek recourse under consumer or contract law.

5. Student Protection Measures

In the event that the risk materialises, we will take one or more of the following measures to protect your continuity of study:

  • Whenever possible, we will make arrangements to ‘teach out’ current students where we have voluntarily decided to leave the market or close a course. This means that we commit to ensuring the course of study can be completed by all currently enrolled students, even though the course is being discontinued and we will not be taking on new student cohorts5
  • We will support you in seeking another provider and continuing your studies with them, utilising student transfer arrangements. As Central is a member of the University of London, we will look to other institutions within the Federation in the first instance6

All these measures have been modelled and we are confident they are viable. We will take into consideration the needs of all our students, including those with mobility considerations or special educational requirements.

Measures contained in the plan may be brought into play at any time, if, for example, doing so would reduce the impact or likelihood of any interruption to students’ studies.

6. Notification, advice and support

We will notify you of any changes which may affect your studies in a timely manner, and commit to contacting you at least 2 months prior to the intended dates of course change or closure. Should the student protect plan need to be triggered, you will be notified in the first instance by:

Advice and support will be offered in the first instance by:

7. Complaints

Central subscribes to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator7, who review complaints by students against higher education providers. If you are not content with the outcomes presented to you, following the exhaustion of internal processes you are able to make a complaint to the OIA.

8. Maintaining this plan

Central’s Academic Board, on behalf of the Governing Body, will review this plan prior to the start of each academic year and make amendments and changes in the interests of ensuring students are fully supported.

James Perkins, Head of Quality Assurance and Enhancement

Please note: The appendices to this plan have been updated where appropriate to reference the most up-to-date policies, but this does not affect the protections described within the Plan.

1 https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/

2 https://www.guildhe.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Statement-of-good-practice-Nov15.pdf

3 See Appendix 1

4 See Appendix 1

5 See Appendix 2

6 See Appendix 3

7http://www.oiahe.org.uk/