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New Applicants for Accreditation

The process for new applicants involves three stages.  Apart from providing a means for the thorough assessment of applicants, there are two reasons for this:

  • since only accredited colleges will be eligible for a UKBA licence, new colleges which are dependent on enrolling visa students will not be able to operate viably until they have gained accreditation.  Stages 1 and 2 of the process are designed to enable BAC to form an interim assessment of a college at an early stage in its development.  If a college has been operating for some time, BAC may consider it appropriate to combine Stages 2 and 3 into a single inspection.
  • it identifies early on things which might prevent the award of accreditation, so enabling colleges to avoid the cost of a full inspection until they have rectified them.

Stage 1
This is a paper-based exercise, requiring colleges to submit an Application Form (which can be downloaded from this website) and supporting documentation (see Section 6 of the Accreditation Handbook).  If the college’s submission is considered to be satisfactory, the process will move to Stage 2.

Stage 2
An inspection which focuses on three of the five areas which BAC assesses (Premises and Health and Safety, Management, Staffing and Administration, and Student Welfare).  If the outcome is considered satisfactory, the status of “Approved Candidate for BAC Accreditation” will be awarded for six months, before the end of which time a further inspection (Stage 3) will take place.  This status will enable the applicant college to apply for a UKBA licence.

Stage 3
An inspection which focuses on the remaining two areas (Management of Quality and Teaching, Learning and Assessment).  The inspectors will also check aspects covered in Stage 2.  If the outcome is satisfactory, accreditation will be awarded for the full term, being four years from the date of the award of "Approved Candidate" status at Stage 2.  The college will receive an interim visit within the first year after Stage 3; if this reports that standards are not being maintained, the Accreditation Committee may require a supplementary inspection to take place at the college’s expense and may suspend accreditation until the report of this inspection has been received.

Reports
After each of Stages 2 and 3, the college will receive a written report and a statement of the decision on the award of accreditation.  The report will summarise the observations made by the inspectors and will include a section outlining requirements and recommendations.  These come under three headings:

  1. Requirements to be met before accreditation can be awarded
  2. Matters which must be addressed before the next BAC inspection
  3. Recommendations to the college

If there are any items in the first of these sections, accreditation will be refused or delayed.