Why the quality assurance agency quit its role in England

The head of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education has told Research Professional News that the agency had to relinquish its role as the designated quality body in England in order to keep working in other nations, writes Chris Parr for Research Professional News.

From April next year, an as-yet-unknown organisation will be in charge of assessing the quality of higher education provision in English institutions on behalf of the Office for Students (OfS). The QAA said on 20 July that it could no longer continue in the role.

Vicki Stott, chief executive of the QAA, told Research Professional News that it made the decision to abandon its quality assessment role in England reluctantly, but that it had to choose between England and its desire to carry out quality assurance work in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Europe and further afield. Much of the QAA’s work outside England is contingent on being signed up to the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education. And the QAA’s European Quality Assurance Register registration has been temporarily suspended because the English system operated by the OfS is not compliant with European standards.
Full report on the Research Professional News site