About BAC
The British Accreditation Council
The British Accreditation Council (BAC) is the only registered charity in the UK dedicated to raising standards in private further and higher education.
We are an independent body, established in 1984 to be the national accrediting body for private post-16 education in the UK. The primary objective of our founding members was “to improve and enhance the standards of independent further and higher educational institutions by the establishment of a system of accreditation”.
A charitable organisation
We are a registered charity, whose Council members are nominated by many of the bodies concerned with the maintenance of educational standards in Britain. No officers or members of Council have a commercial interest in any of the accredited institutions. The responsibility for decisions on accreditation is delegated to our Accreditation Committee, which includes members of the Council, recent practitioners and representatives of educational standards bodies.
UK Border Agency approved for the purposes of sponsorship of Student Visitor visas
Our accreditation is recognised by the UK Border Agency (UKBA), part of the Home Office, as a qualifying requirement for institutions wishing to enrol students on Student Visitor visas: students from outside the EEA will only secure a UK Student Visitor visa if they have a genuine offer from an accredited institution.
Partners in quality private education
We have a close relationship with the accreditation scheme operated by Accreditation UK (in the field of English as a Foreign Language). The system of accreditation established by the these bodies was described in 1990 by the Rt. Hon. John MacGregor, then Secretary of State for Education, as “the only public guarantee of standards in independent institutions of further and higher education in the UK”. In June 2011, Damian Green MP, Minister for Immigration, further recognised our work and stated "I do wish to acknowledge the work that the British Accreditation Council (BAC) has done in relation to improving awareness and understanding of the private further and higher education sectors in the UK, and the role it has played in improving standards within this sector".
Affiliate of ENQA
We are an affiliate of ENQA, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.
