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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:

  • new institutions may find it difficult to attract students until they have gained accreditation. Stages 1 and 2 of the process are designed to enable BAC to form an interim assessment of an institution at an early stage in its development. If an institution has been operating for some time, BAC may consider it appropriate to combine stages 2 and 3 into a single accreditation inspection.
  • it identifies early on things which might prevent the award of accreditation, so enabling institutions to avoid the cost of a full inspection until they have rectified them.

'Stage 1' application review
This is a paper-based exercise, requiring institutions to submit an application form (which can be downloaded from this page) and supporting documentation (see section 5 of the Accreditation Handbook). If the institution’s submission is considered to be satisfactory, the process will move to stage 2.

'Stage 2' candidacy inspection
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 accreditation inspection ('stage 3') will take place.

'Stage 3' accreditation inspection
An inspection which focuses on the remaining two areas (Management of Quality and Teaching, Learning and Assessment). The inspectors will also check aspects covered at 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 institution 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 institution’s expense and may suspend accreditation until the report of this inspection has been received.

Reports
After each of stages 2 and 3, the institution 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 institution

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