Home > About Us

About the British Accreditation Council

The British Accreditation Council (BAC) is an independent body, established in 1984 to be the national accrediting body for private post-16 education in the UK.  The primary objective of the Council's 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

BAC is 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 BAC’s Accreditation Committee, which includes members of the Council, recent practitioners and representatives of other accrediting bodies.  

Border & Immigration Agency approved for the purposes of sponsorship
under the Points Based System

Accreditation by BAC is recognised by the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) of the Home Office, as a qualifying requirement for institutions wishing to enrol visa students.  BAC works closely with and is itself monitored by Ofsted on behalf of the BIA.  BAC accreditation enables institutions to be entered on the Register of Education and Training Providers maintained by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (formerly DfES).  

Partners in quality private education

BAC has a close relationship with accreditation schemes operated by Accreditation UK (in the field of English as a Foreign Language) and the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council. The system of accreditation established by the three 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”.