What does this mean for HE in England? QAA announcement

[shockthemonkey]

Does anyone have any views on this? It has been brought to my attention by a concerned parent and fellow UCAS adviser.

QAA believes it can no longer meet the requirements made, on the one hand, by the DQB - as mandated by "the current regulatory approach in England - and those of the ESG or European Standards and Guidelines.

Does this worry anyone? I advise European students wishing to study in the UK - mainly England - and it leaves me unsure on how to advise them.

There could be, for instance, repercussions for the international recognition of degrees from English universities... and also for any joint English/international programmes.

I think they are a charity so I’m not quite sure how they influence recognition of degrees by other countries.

The Quality Assurance Agency for HE (QAA) is only a charity in the way that universities are, i.e. it has some exemption from certain taxes because its work is directly related to education. It is a non-governmental organisation producing and publishing quality standards for higher education institutions. The Higher Education & Research Act 2017 made the Office for Students the regulator of academic standards in England (not the rest of the UK) but the QAA still does the quality-assurance work under contract to the OfS.

All HE programmes are required to show adherence to QAA standards and benchmarks during approval and periodic review. I think the QAA statement is saying that the standards the OfS requires in England are not compliant with European standards, and therefore to ensure standards in the rest of the UK are, it is having to effectively operate two different sets of standards, which it can't afford to do.

Thank you, you are spot on. I'm just not clear where this leaves EU students still keen on studying in the UK. They're shelling out more and more, post Brexit, for a degree the value of which seems to be eroding year on year.

It feels more and more like, when there's Canada (especially Quebec[, Holland and certain other EU countries teaching degrees in English, and at great prices/sometimes practically free, why head to UK/England?

And aren't some British students also voting with their feet? Heading off to Italy for Bocconi, Spain for IE, or Holland for all sorts of great degrees? That's the impression I get from TSR.

It'll depend on who OfS select instead. Hand on heart, it won't make any difference at all to the quality of English uni degrees, and I don't think international students will care too much on the whole.

It's not entirely unexpected - OfS are a shit show who have been treating QAA abysmally ever since their inception.

It probably won't make a huge difference in the short term. However, it is likely to result in reputational damage in the long term.

Thanks for the insights!

French students focus on QS ranking and I don't think this will be impacted by the announcement in the immediate term.

But it feels like a continuation of a slow erosion of value-for-money for international students which began with Brexit.