Private Colleges – Boon, Curse or Both? The Work of the British Accreditation Council
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67508/iub.ibr.v1n1.001Abstract
Private colleges are a sector of the economy unknown to many, except maybe some members of the Committee of Validating Universities who have entered into collabomtions, and so the colleges offer their qualifications. Of late there has been a proliferation, and some of these are known to be struggling financially with the initial setup cost being at least £250,000 and most having to sink in more money before there is any return on capital. Others are set up to encourage fraud and illegal immigration. Others are there to provide a genuine and quality education. The article outlines the various controls that should be in place. Mentioned are: Companies House and the Business Names Act section, Trading Standards, the DfES Register, the UK Borders Agency; the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, professional bodies, Transport for London, state education, UK NARIC, the police, press and television, employment tribunals, county and small claims courts, and the Joint Education Taskjorce. Unfortunately this diverse list of controls has been found not lo work perfectly in practice. We tum now to the role of the British Accreditation Agency in all this, and its mission and history. Included is an account of its structure and particularly the criteria it uses for accreditation. Ovemll conclusions are then drawn.
References
Helgesen, O., & Nesset, E. (2007). What accounts for students' loyalty? Some field study evidence. International Journal of Educational Management, 22(2), 126-143.
Power, M. (1999). The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Power, M. (2000). Exploring the Audit Society. International Journal of Auditing, 4(1), Special Issue.
Shaw, K. E. (2005). Researching the trade in knowledge between the West and developing countries. International Journal of Educational Management, 19(6), 459-468.
Vinten, G. (2007). It's up to us to keep the sharks out of our pool. Times Higher Education Supplement, October 12.
Vinten, G. (2008). Review of Accreditation Mills, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers, Washington, DC, 2007. Quality Assurance in Education, 100-103. Emerald Publishers.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
IBR contents are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This permits anyone to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work non-commercially provided the original work and source is appropriately cited.
