Review of all accreditation schemes 2022-2023

 BAC is a registered charity with the explicit aim of raising standards in the independent further and higher education and training sector.  We do this through a process of institutional accreditation measuring providers against a set of published standards.

All our inspection reports are made public and designed to be accessible to all our stakeholders with a view to ensuring that students can make an informed choice when choosing where to study or with which organisations to study.

We periodically carry out reviews of our schemes to ensure they reflect best practice and remain relevant. We are reviewing all six of our accreditation schemes this year.

The following four schemes will be reviewed internally, having had a full review more recently.

  • Independent Higher Education (IHE) scheme
  • Independent English Language Provider scheme (IELP)
  • Short Course Provider (SCP) scheme
  • Online, Distance and Blended Learning (ODBL) scheme

Schemes will be updated and refreshed to confirm the schemes are in line with the new Common Quality Framework (http://www.the-bac.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Common-Quality-Framework.pdf), remove any duplication, ensure consistency across the standards and importantly that they continue to reflect best practice.

Timeline

October 2022                   Consultation at BAC Inspectors’ Event

November 2022             Updates to schemes based on feedback

January 2023                  Sign off by Chief Inspector

March 2023                      Submit to Accreditation Committee; Update at Annual Stakeholder Event

May 2023                           Proofread and design process; Update related documents

September 2023             Publish and start to use

 

Full review

This year we will be conducting a full review of the College and International Centre schemes. This is a more in-depth assessment of the standards and will involve working groups for each scheme made up of providers, inspectors and industry representatives as well as a wider consultation period before the schemes go live in September 2023.

Timeline

December 2022             Internal work to bring up to date with other schemes

January 2023                 Working group meetings

March 2023                    Wider consultation; Sign off by Chief Inspector; Submit to Accreditation Committee; Update at Annual Stakeholder Event

May 2023                         Proofread and design process;  Update related documents

September 2023           Publish and start to use

We are always interested in receiving feedback from our stakeholders, if you have any questions or comments, please contact us at info@the-bac.org