Funding QAA's work as the designated quality body in England: analysis of consultation responses

Following a consultation on fees for QAA's work as the designated quality body in England, we have now published an analysis of responses.

The consultation sought views on the statutory fees QAA will charge for carrying out functions on behalf of the Office for Students as the designated body for the assessment of quality and standards for higher education in England under the provisions of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (HERA).

The original consultation explained there would be two types of statutory fee: (i) an annual fee charged to all higher education providers in England to cover the infrastructure costs of its designated body operation; and (ii) a fee charged only to individual institutions undertaking Quality Standards Review or in relation to degree awarding powers.

We received 127 responses to the consultation, including five on behalf of representative bodies, covering the spectrum of higher education provision. The key outcomes are that:

• a banded fee model will apply based on the size of an institution, supported by 68% of respondents as a credible charging model
• following feedback, revisions have been made to the proposed bands, and a new band introduced for the very largest institutions
• QAA commits to periodic review of the fee structure, ensuring continued value for money.

QAA membership survey

QAA is also currently surveying its members in England on a new membership offer  for a range of services not covered by our designated quality body fees in England. The deadline for feedback to the membership model has been extended to Friday 24 May 2019. The survey is exclusively for our member institutions. More information about membership can be found in our brochure.