QAA publishes response to DfE franchising consultation

QAA has published its response to the Department for Education's consultation on franchising in higher education.

QAA's response to the consultation welcomed the Government’s acknowledgement of the need for greater oversight and a proportionate approach to franchised provision, in order to protect the student experience, while noting that the size of a franchised provider does not necessarily always equate to the level of risk associated with its operations and the quality of its provision. 

The consultation response welcomes the proposals from the perspective of protecting public money, while noting that they may have limited impact on the quality of franchised provision. It observed that oversight of partnership provision via the lead provider can be robust if such oversight includes periodic quality reviews which incorporate partnership provision, as QAA's activity does in the devolved nations of the UK. 

QAA therefore recommended that the Office for Students should embed periodic quality review into its integrated quality model (which would include looking at all types of partnership arrangements in its scope), and should consider circumstances where it may be appropriate to make use of its ability to vary degree awarding powers to deal with the most serious regulatory concerns at lead providers.

Partnership provision has been an area of increased focus in QAA’s work recently. In July, QAA will publish the new edition of the UK Quality Code's Advice & Guidance chapter on 'Operating Partnerships with Other Organisations'. The writing of this chapter has involved not only expertise from across the tertiary sector but has also engaged the Department for Education to ensure its guidance is aligned with broader government and regulatory activity. 

Last year, QAA published a special edition of Quality Compass on the topic of franchising. Having jointly published a recent article on the subject for HEPI, QAA has also this year continued to collaborate with GuildHE, Independent HE, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education and Universities UK to host a series of roundtables exploring partnership provision, whose findings will be published in due course.

You can read QAA's full response to the DfE consultation here.