The notes below are drawn from a QAA seminar held at Regents College London on 7th July 2011. The meeting was led by senior officials from QAA. The Immigration Minister Damian Green made a presentation and senior officials from UKBA were also present.
Immigration issues
• Both the Minister and UKBA officials made it clear that there would be no changes to the policy of restricting permission to take employment for students outside the public sector system.
• There were strong indications that a new HTS policy would be introduced in September, probably preceded by a short consultation to be published by the end of July.
QAA
Note that in a number of areas it appeared that QAA had still not decided on the detail of their plans. Education providers should therefore check the UKBA and QAA websites for further information.
• The two main review bodies for private colleges will be QAA and ISI. Generally speaking the division will be between those colleges providing courses at or above L4 (QAA); and below that level (ISI). Colleges who are in doubt about where to apply should make preliminary enquiries with one of the bodies to establish which would be the more appropriate.
• The basic concept is one of peer review. Colleges may nominate candidates to act as reviewers (for other institutions) to provide consistency with the public sector. Further information on applying on the QAA website.
• An application form and guidance for review will be published on the QAA website on 18/7/11.
• The closing date for applications will be 9/9/11. There is no guarantee that applications received after this date will be dealt with in time for the cut off in December 2012.
• The application fee is likely to be £1450.
• Applications should be accompanied by the fee and documentation in accordance with the guidance (to be published). Applications will need to meet the basic criteria for the review process. No judgements are made at this stage, only whether the application is complete and appropriate.
• Applicants are likely to be informed by the end of September 2011 whether they meet the basic criteria for review.
• Applicants are likely to be informed by 31/10/201 of the key review dates. Briefing sessions will be held in the Autumn but substantive reviews are unlikely to commence before January 2012.
• The fee for the review is likely to be between £17,000 and £19,000.
• The review itself will be in several stages
o Self evaluation (from which the agenda for the review is derived)
o Documentation
o Preliminary meeting
o 2 day visit by team of 3 people looking at procedures and consistency of practice against quality standards
o Meetings with staff and students
o Draft report
o Final report (published)
• Indications were that the whole process (excluding the initial application) could take 6 months or more.
• QAA are currently considering a 4 year cycle of reviews although the recent Education White Paper encouraged a more risk based approach.
• Applicants should check the QAA website regularly for key dates and further information. QAA has already published information from the seminar which can be found via the following link http://www.qaa.ac.uk/Newsroom/News/Pages/QAA-conference-Tier4.aspx
Seminars
• Veristat is planning to run seminars during August in London and Manchester on HTS and QAA accreditation. The seminars will be led by highly experienced professionals in these fields and will be aimed at giving up to date practical advice and assistance in what are crucial areas for education providers. Further information and dates for the seminars will be circulated shortly.
• The seminars will be offered on a first come, first served basis when the details are published. To register an interest in advance, email maria@veristat.co.uk stating whether you would be interested in a London or Manchester event.
Don Ingham
11th July 2011
