What regulation is there of the independent sector?

While independent colleges of FE and HE operate mainly as private businesses, outside of the public framework of inspections and audits, and not tied financially to the state purse, in recent years they have come under increasing regulatory scrutiny from various governmental offices and agencies.

The British Accreditation Council was founded in 1984 by various stakeholders from the UK's education sector expressly in order to provide a quality assurance mechanism to this unregulated area. As part of our accreditation process, we check colleges against many markers of regulatory compliance, including those inherited from: the Health and Safety Executive; the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; Companies House; Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs; the Home Office; the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills; and Local Authorities, including Trading Standards.

Other regulatory bodies concerned with the maintenance of standards in private education include:

The British Council
manage Accreditation UK, the national quality assurance scheme for English Language schools
Council of Validating Universities (CVU)
membership of universities who validate many academic programmes at independent colleges
Open and Distance Learning Quality Council (ODL QC)
quality assurance scheme for distance learning in the UK
National Recognition Information Centre (UK NARIC)
the definitive source for equivalency of value in international qualifications, which are frequently offered to students in the independent sector

These bodies and the other principal organisations involved in the sector work in close partnership with the BAC, and more information can be found on the Partners page of the About Us section of this site.

For further information on private colleges and UK law, see 'Legal status of colleges'