Accreditation

BAC accreditation is a well-established, international quality assurance scheme which benefits from over 25 years of unrivalled experience and understanding of the independent further and higher education sectors.

BAC accreditation is a voluntary quality assurance scheme for independent providers of further and higher education. It is open to privately funded organisations in the UK which provide education to students aged 16 and over, including colleges of further education, independent higher education institutions, professional short course providers and independent sixth form and tutorial colleges. It is also open to institutions operating overseas with links to UK education; details of BAC’s international accreditation scheme are published separately and are available on request from the BAC office. Please see our international accreditation section for more information.

In awarding accreditation BAC has four main purposes:

• to support and advise independent institutions of further or higher education in the maintenance and enhancement of their quality of provision
• to provide independent guidance to students seeking to undertake further or higher education in an institution outside the state sector
• to provide assurance of the good standing of an institution to government departments and other interested bodies
• to enable an institution to state publicly that it has voluntarily accepted independent inspection and has satisfied BAC that all relevant aspects of its operation are maintained at a satisfactory level.