In July 2022, QAA agreed with the UK Standing Committee for Quality Assessment (UKSCQA) that the time was right to hold a UK sector-wide conversation about the future scope and structure of the Quality Code. This was in light of changes to the regulatory structures of higher education across the UK and the introduction of explicit tertiary approaches in Wales and Scotland, and also to better reflect current practice and topics that are pertinent to maintaining standards and assuring and enhancing quality.

This provided an opportunity to consider the content and presentation of the Quality Code and for the sector to take ownership of the scope and structure to ensure it remains is a valuable resource in developing, reviewing and enhancing the approach to quality and standards within individual providers in the current landscape.

Emphasising our continuing commitment to the Quality Code being a truly sector-led reference point, we undertook an extensive consultative approach to its redevelopment.

We held detailed conversations and interactive events with our members and other groups to understand how they needed the Quality Code to evolve. This included roundtable discussions, sharing ideas and hosting workshops with members through our existing networks and events, and also engaging directly with other sector bodies and groupings (including Universities UK, GuildHE, Independent HE, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for HE, Quality Strategy Network, Academic Registrars Council and related groups in the UK nations). We also ran a series of public discussions and a formal consultation event.

We used this ongoing feedback to shape the final version of the Quality Code, which was published in June 2024.

A final formal consultation was undertaken from April to May 2024. This document provides an overview of the responses and explains the adjustments we made to address the feedback received and create the final published version.

From November 2023 to January 2024, we ran a series of online events and a survey. This feedback informed the final draft for consultation.

In May 2023, feedback was received and considered on the proposed conceptual models. We also asked about the future direction of the Advice and Guidance, and how we might embed enhancement into a new version of the Quality Code.

This document summaries the key areas of feedback received up to April 2023. This helped help shape development of the conceptual models (see above).