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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 can gain access to the Register of Sponsors, 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 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 the BAC website) and an amount of required 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 and Staffing and Student Welfare).  If the outcome is considered satisfactory, initial accreditation will be awarded for six months, before the end of which time a further inspection (Stage 3) will take place.

Stage 3
An inspection which focuses on the remaining two areas (Management of Quality and Teaching and Learning: Delivery and Resource).  The inspectors will also spotcheck aspects covered in Stage 2.  If the outcome is satisfactory, accreditation will be awarded initially for a further year, before the end of which time the college will receive an interim visit.  If this reports that standards are being maintained, accreditation will be confirmed for the remainder of the four-year period.

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.