QAA licenses the awarding bodies for Access to HE courses, known as Access Validating Agencies (AVAs). AVAs develop, approve and monitor Access to HE courses, and work with further education colleges and other providers that deliver these courses to students. Before a provider is allowed to make an Access to HE course available, the course has to be approved by an AVA.

The list below shows which AVAs operate across the UK. If you would like to search for Access to HE courses by particular locations, you can do this using our course search.