Outcomes Framework and Assurance Model FAQs

The new assurance model is data and insight led and is firmly based on continued engagement with institutions. This approach, which prioritises our relationships with institutions, will allow us to better contextualise data returns and to work with institutions to address any issues in a timely manner. We will continue to use an expert quality agency or other external/third-party equivalents to support our assurance.

The OF and AM are sufficiently flexible to absorb changes and we can build in other measures or data sets as necessary. If SFC’s duties or remit change, we may revisit the outcomes to ensure these are reflected appropriately but hope to keep these as fixed as possible to provide institutions with certainty and consistency about expected outcomes year-on-year. If we receive topical items of policy direction from ministers, we will try to deal with these through separate monitoring that is appropriate to the matters of interest rather than constantly changing the OF or the AM.

SFC received a strong steer from institutions that it is important to them to be able to continue to provide some context on their performance as part of the OF and AM. In doing so, SFC is committed to ensuring that the Contextual Commentary does not grow arms and legs and is not lengthy. It is our view that the commentary should provide concise context around the data that institutions submit within the monitoring returns and to frame this in the strategic context of the institution. The commentaries will not be published but may be discussed as part of SFC’s regular engagement with colleges and universities. Institutions will be required to submit their first Contextual Commentary in November 2025. SFC will work with sector groups in the coming year to determine the level of detail required, and whether there is demand for SFC to provide guidance or templates. Overall, our aim will be to ensure the Contextual Commentaries provide institutions with the opportunity to give appropriate context but do not become unnecessarily lengthy or burdensome.

Thematic Reviews will be introduced from 2025-26. We do not envisage that these will cover all outcomes every year. Our current expectation is that there will be no more than two to three Thematic Reviews each academic year. Thematic Reviews will be more likely to cover topical or emerging issues, or those which cross multiple Outcomes. They may also be used to examine those issues which may be better viewed over a longer timescale – perhaps on a three-year cycle, rather than an annual one.

Our intention is to involve the sector in deciding themes for review, and to develop in partnership with institutions a long-term programme for Thematic Reviews, so that colleges and universities can prepare to report on up-coming issues. As part of our commitment to streamlining our ask of institutions, we will work with sector groups (for example, Universities Scotland, Colleges Scotland and QAA) to ensure that the issues that SFC wishes to address do not duplicate with similar asks from other organisations.

We expect that some of the work on conducting Thematic Reviews will be carried out by SFC, but some may be commissioned to other organisations.

The OF and AM are designed to provide SFC with assurance that institutions have delivered on our core expectations. Therefore, the model shifts the balance to place greater emphasis on retrospective analysis of what has been delivered by institutions in support of the OF. However, there are some policy areas where SFC may need to continue to take account of the detail of institutions’ forward-looking strategies and planned activity. This applies to the Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Fund were strategies outlining priorities for KE&I that demonstrate alignment with Scottish Government national priorities form an important element of the model.

The OF is largely drawn from SFC’s statutory duties and reflects our expectations in return for the significant funding that institutions receive. We have worked to remove duplication from the AM that underpins the OF and sought to streamline this where possible.  We will consider convening a group of Small Specialist Institutions going forward to hear how they will be impacted to enable us to take this into account as we work through the implementation of the AM.

The engagement aspect of the AM will provide the space for institutions to discuss emerging opportunities with us.  Institutions have previously requested that SFC prioritises the preservation of core formula funding, particularly where we are operating within a constrained funding environment, and this reduces SFC’s ability to create reserve funds to provide bespoke additional financial support to institutions to embrace emerging opportunities. However, SFC may be able to provide support in other ways (such as the provision of guidance) which we would welcome discussing with institutions as these matters arise.

SFC senior leadership engagement visits are just one aspect of SFC’s Engagement Strategy.  The purpose of the visits is to inform SFC’s understanding of the performance, strategy, risks, opportunities, and challenges facing an institution, as well as issues identified through recent routine engagement with the institution. The visits will enable discussion between the senior leadership and students of institutions and SFC’s executive team, regional lead, and the Outcome Manager, along with other SFC colleagues with expertise relevant to the meeting. The intention is that this dialogue will strengthen relationships, enhance our understanding of institutions, and provide an opportunity for institutions to demonstrate their impact and highlight the main issues which affect them. This will help SFC to take account of the nuance of individual institutions’ circumstances.  The visits will also support the SFC executive in understanding how the sector is performing at a regional and national level, ensuring that SFC is able to advise Scottish Government effectively on how funding is being used. SFC will work on a rolling programme of visits for its senior management team, which will take account of other visits (for example SFC Board visits) so that individual institutions are not over-burdened with visits.

The National Impact Framework (NIF) was intended to cover the broader impacts of institutions and their contribution to Scotland. This has been covered (and superseded) by Scottish Government’s Purpose and Principles. The OF is largely drawn from SFC’s statutory duties, but if there are areas that institutions want to highlight to showcase impact, then we can work with Universities Scotland and Colleges Scotland to look at how this can be delivered.

The interpretation of data returns will vary according to outcome area and the data being considered. We may set sector-level target measures for some outcomes, but it will not be appropriate to attach numeric targets and measures to sources of assurance that are qualitative. Whatever the source of assurance, assessment of institutional performance and decisions on SFC’s response to this will not be purely mechanistic: We will take into account the wider context as reflected in Contextual Commentaries and our ongoing programme of engagement with institutions. We will discuss with sector contacts the detail of assessing performance against each of the outcomes as we implement the AM.

Yes, once we have shared our plans on the sources of data we will use, we can develop technical guidance on relevant numeric and data-based sources of information. We will discuss this as part of our sector engagement about implementation of the AM.

As at present, SFC will do this in a number of ways. We will publish reports and analyses of sector-level performance in relation to the OF. With the permission of institutions, these may feature examples of particular activities that institutions are engaging in, as submitted through Case Studies and Thematic Work. In line with our role as a provider of Official Statistics and Accredited Official Statistics (previously National Statistics) covering Further and Higher Education in Scotland, we will continue to publish a series of statistical reports each year which may contain more detailed information on individual institutions. SFC will continue to use the information on institutional performance to inform engagement with and briefings for Scottish Government, and to feed into processes such as its Resource Spending Review. We may also share intelligence with other stakeholders, particularly those with whom we have Memoranda of Understanding or data sharing agreements in place.

Yes, we will look at the contextual returns alongside the data to ensure that we take appropriate account of the context provided by institutions in understanding and interpreting the data.

We will share our plans regarding the use of data and the timings of this through our sector engagement with institutions about the implementation of the AM.

SFC’s Early Statistics, Early Access, and Final Figures Returns will continue to run until in-year Data Futures Returns are introduced by Jisc. We may also continue to run these additional returns concurrently for a year or two until the Data Futures Returns are fully established, as a contingency measure. However, we will work with the sector on the detail of this when the time comes.

We do not plan to create supplementary sector-level data returns directly connected with the OF and AM. However, SFC may need to make additional data or ad-hoc data collections for other purposes, on specific areas of interest and concern. For example, in recent years we have collected additional information from universities around the recruitment of overseas students.

Where specific issues are identified with an individual institution’s Data Futures Student Return, SFC’s Data Collections Team may ask the institution to provide clarifications or, if necessary, supplementary data.

Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data is created and managed by the Scottish Government. SFC may use LEO data along with the other sources of data available to us on graduate destinations, to enhance our understanding on outcomes for university students after they have completed their studies.

SFC wants its Assurance Model to be based on robust data. We will work with institutions to ensure data is used appropriately; this includes taking into account any challenges with the early submissions of the Data Futures model. We will be discussing with institutions in the coming months (a) the data to be used and (b) the timing of this, so that we have a shared understanding.

SFC produces Official Statistics and Accredited Official Statistics (previously National Statistics) covering Further and Higher Education in Scotland. These support our work with colleges and universities to measure and improve performance across the sectors. We will continue to provide a variety of reports and analyses, such as the Report on Widening Access, as part of this work. We will engage with the sector on the implementation of the AM, and discuss with institutions the ways in which we will use the data held by SFC as part of the AM.

Contextual Commentaries are not intended for publication. However, all the information that SFC holds could potentially be released in response to Freedom of Information request.  As with all Freedom of Information requests, we would consider the public interest in determining what to release and would consider the application of allowable exemptions if appropriate (for example, in relation to personal or commercially sensitive information).