Yesterday saw the launch of a new consultation on the Quality Assurance Agency’s Quality Code.
The new draft version retains twelve “sector agreed principles” which align to European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), and these are underpinned by 70 “key practices” to provide more detailed recommendations for providers.
The QAA Quality Code is very much still a thing. In Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland it forms a key component of quality assurance practice – setting out the key expectations that will allow a provider to prove, via a cyclical inspection conducted by the QAA, that it is serious about higher education.
The Quality Code also has standing overseas – fully compliant with international expectations, it is used in countless countries as a point of reference. It’s an example of best practice, underpinning the outside impact that UK higher education has on systems around the world. If you have overseas provision, or recruit internationally, you can use the Quality Code to reassure international regulators that you comply with international quality expectations.
In England, the Quality Code (designed and owned by the sector) does not even have official status as a sector recognised standard.
