History of BAC
The History of the British Accreditation Council
From our beginnings as a small group of concerned educationalists providing a quality mark following the withdrawal of the government’s scheme, to an internationally recognised body whose assistance is sought by institutions and agencies across the globe, we have come a long way.
BAC was formally established on 29 June 1984. The first college to be accredited was King’s School Oxford (then known as St Joseph’s Hall) which was inspected on 25 February 1985, and awarded accreditation following a meeting of the Accreditation and Recognition Committee (subsequently renamed the Accreditation Committee) on 18 April 1985.
At the end of our first year of operation a total of 35 institutions had been awarded accreditation, including tutorial colleges and institutions offering business and professional education and training at further and higher education levels. Over the next nine years the number of accredited institutions grew slowly, reaching 82 by the end of 1993. Sixth form and tutorial colleges continued to form the bulk of these. However, there had been a significant increase in accredited institutions offering business and professional studies and higher education courses, along with colleges catering for students with special educational needs.
From 1993 to 2005 the number of institutions accredited by us grew from 82 to 200. The biggest increases came in the years 2003-2005, when accreditation activity reached then unprecedented levels. Most of the new institutions were colleges offering courses in business studies and computer studies, primarily for the benefit of overseas students.
Since 2001, BAC accreditation has been recognised by UK governments as an indicator of the bona fides of a further and/or higher education institution and, as a result, we saw the number of accredited providers increase to over 500 institutions. Continued changes to the immigration systems permitting overseas students to study in the UK and fledgling changes to the funding of higher education paraded in the 2011 White Paper lead the private further and higher education sector into a period of challenge and significant opportunity, and throughout this we continue to operate the most relevant and trusted accreditation scheme for the sector.
In October 2012, a new accreditation scheme was introduced for online, distance and blended learning. A new international centre scheme was also launched for prestigious overseas institutions that do not meet all of the international higher education criteria.
Please contact BAC to order a hard copy of "A History of BAC's First 25 Years" or you can download it from the link below.
