The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA): the independent body entrusted with monitoring, and advising on, standards and quality in UK higher education.
As UK higher education grows and diversifies, the QAA safeguard standards and support the improvement of quality for students whether they study at a university or college in the UK or in any other location worldwide where courses lead to UK higher education qualifications.
The scale, shape, structure, and purpose of learning provision are changing in the UK and around the world. We are uniquely placed to anticipate and respond to these changes in order to safeguard the reputation of UK higher education, support economic opportunity for the UK, and provide assurance to those who invest in and undertake learning.
Through our consultative and advisory role, working at the government level through to individual organisations, we will continue to play our part in shaping the future. This extends to playing a leading role in international developments in quality assurance, through membership of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education and of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education.
Above all, we will continue to put students and the public interest at the centre of everything we do.
The UK Quality Code for Higher Education (the Quality Code) is the definitive reference point for all UK higher education providers. It makes clear what higher education providers are required to do, what they can expect of each other, and what the general public can expect of them. The Quality Code covers all four nations of the UK and all providers of UK higher education operating overseas. It protects the interests of all students, regardless of where they are studying or whether they are full-time, part-time, undergraduate, or postgraduate students.
The QAA has included these regulations in 11 chapters. Each Chapter contains a single Expectation, which expresses the key principle that the higher education community has identified as essential for the assurance of academic standards and quality within the area covered by the Chapter. Higher education providers reviewed by the QAA are required to meet all the Expectations. The manner in which they do so is their own responsibility. The QAA carries out reviews to check whether higher education providers are meeting the Expectations.
Each Chapter has been developed by QAA through an extensive process of consultation with higher education providers; their representative bodies; the National Union of Students; professional, statutory, and regulatory bodies; and other interested parties. Higher education providers are also responsible for meeting the requirements of legislation and any other regulatory requirements placed upon them, for example by funding bodies. The Quality Code does not interpret legislation nor does it incorporate statutory or regulatory requirements. Sources of information about other requirements and examples of guidance and good practice are signposted within the Chapter where appropriate. Higher education providers are responsible for how they use these resources.
The Expectation in each Chapter is accompanied by a series of Indicators that reflect sound practice, and through which providers can demonstrate they are meeting the relevant Expectation. Indicators are not designed to be used as a checklist; they are intended to help providers reflect on and develop their regulations, procedures and practices to demonstrate that the Expectations in the Quality Code are being met.
Each Indicator is numbered and printed in bold and is supported by an explanatory note that gives more information about it, together with examples of how the Indicator may be interpreted in practice. The General introduction to the Quality Code should be considered in conjunction with this document. It provides a technical introduction for users, including guidance concerning the terminology used and a quick-reference glossary.
Assuring and Enhancing Academic Quality
- Chapter B1: Programme Design, Development and Approval. (This Chapter addresses the initial design and development of a programme and the processes which lead to a decision by the degree-awarding body that it may be delivered in the agreed form).
- Chapter B2: Recruitment, Selection and Admission to Higher Education. (This Chapter focuses on the interconnected policies and procedures related to the recruitment, selection and admission of students to higher education. It offers a framework for assuring quality, and provides guidance to higher education providers and those involved in recruitment, selection and admission).
- Chapter B3: Learning and Teaching. (This Chapter focuses on the learning opportunities that higher education providers make available to students and on the staff who teach and who support learning, including those staff who are not employees of the higher education provider and/or are not based at the provider).
- Chapter B4: Enabling Student Development and Achievement. (This Chapter addresses the ways in which higher education providers enable students to develop and achieve their academic, personal and professional potential).
- Chapter B5: Student Engagement. (This Chapter covers student engagement at undergraduate and postgraduate level, irrespective of location, mode of study, teaching delivery, or discipline. The Chapter focuses on the provision of an inclusive environment for student engagement).
- Chapter B6: Assessment of Students and the Recognition of Prior Learning. (This Chapter covers student engagement at undergraduate and postgraduate level, irrespective of location, mode of study, teaching delivery, or discipline. The Chapter focuses on the provision of an inclusive environment for student engagement).
- Chapter B7: External Examining. (This Chapter is designed to ensure that external examining can operate in a way which is transparent, rigorous, and as consistent as possible across all UK higher education institutions, taking into account institutions' autonomy and differences in their mission, size, organisational structures and range of provision).
- Chapter B8: Programme Monitoring and Review. (This Chapter discusses the mechanisms which higher education providers use to reflect on a programme once it is running, and to determine how it can be improved. This Chapter also addresses matters relating to closure of existing programmes).
- Chapter B9: Academic Appeals and Student Complaints. (This Chapter sets out principles for addressing academic appeals and complaints about the quality of learning opportunities by students in higher education providers).
- Chapter B10: Managing Higher Education Provision with Others. (This Chapter is based on the key principle that the delivery of learning opportunities with others, wherever and however organised, should widen learning opportunities without prejudice either to the academic standard of the award or the quality of what is offered to students).
- Chapter B11: Research Degrees. (This Chapter is about doctorates and research master's degrees. It is informed by a wider context in which UK research degrees are offered, including an environment of continuous improvement and the desire to learn from others' experiences in research education).
