Private higher education: improving certainly, but still could do better

Most private colleges provide a quality student experience, QAA reports, but 100 institutions failed to progress or pass review Private providers are the subject of heated debate in the UK higher education sector. It’s in this context that QAA (the Quality Assurance Agency for higher education) carried out ‘educational oversight’ reviews of 209 private colleges over the course of 2012. Overall, our review judged 86% of them to be providing a quality student experience, publishing honest and accurate information, and delivering courses that meet the academic standards laid down by their awarding organisations.

Of course, that isn’t the whole story. More than 100 of the original applicants to QAA following the government’s new rules on recruiting international students either failed to progress to review or failed the review itself – sometimes because of very serious problems.

In one west London college, assignments presented by four different students were identical and had obviously not been checked for plagiarism. These same pieces of work were given individually awarded marks ranging from 40% to 70%.

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Source: The Guardian – Private HE Colleges QAA Review