Minister for Skills, Further and Higher Education (): Today, I am announcing the
de-designation of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher
Education (QAA) as designated quality body (DQB) for higher
education in England under the Higher Education and Research Act
2017 (HERA).
Assessing quality and standards is an integral part of
considering applications to join the Office for Students (OfS)
register, which enables providers to access student finance,
sponsor visas for international students, and to become eligible
to be granted degree awarding powers amongst other benefits.
HERA makes provision for a body to be designated to carry out
assessment functions under the Act. The DQB assesses quality and
standards in relation to relevant conditions for providers
registered or registering with the OfS. It also provides advice
to the OfS regarding quality and standards in connection with the
grant, variation and revocation of providers’ degree awarding
powers.
QAA has been designated since April 2018. On 20 July 2022,
QAA announced that it would no
longer consent to be the DQB(opens in a new tab) after the
current DQB year ends on 31 March 2023. The OfS supports QAA’s
request for its designation to be removed given that it has
significant concerns about QAA’s performance, which it has set
out in its triennial report on the DQB’s
performance.(opens in a new tab)
The Secretary of State is required to consult before removing the
designation, even where the DQB has asked to be de-designated.
Accordingly, my Department consulted from 8 February to 3 March
2023. The government response to this consultation will be
published today. An overall majority (31 of 47) of responses
disagreed with de-designation. I have considered these responses
carefully and appreciate that a number of higher education
providers would prefer QAA to remain as DQB. However, QAA has
made it clear that it would no longer be content to be the DQB. I
also note that the majority of responses from representative
bodies on behalf of their members agreed with de-designation,
including Universities UK which represents 140 providers.
Having considered the responses to the consultation, and QAA’s
decision to step down from the DQB role, I have concluded that
QAA should be de-designated as DQB. I will therefore publish a
notice to remove the designation with effect from 1 April 2023.
Where no body is designated to perform the assessment functions,
the functions revert to the OfS. The OfS has confirmed that, from
1 April 2023, it will undertake all quality and standards
assessment activity on an interim basis pending further
consideration of future arrangements. The DfE, OfS and HE
stakeholders will work closely to consider options for long-term
arrangements for the assessment of quality and standards.
