{"id":53109,"date":"2015-01-29T17:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=483b5682fbe36157e626a9a16a7361b5"},"modified":"2015-01-29T17:00:22","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:00:22","slug":"press-release-tougher-quality-measures-for-higher-education-alternative-providers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=53109","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Tougher quality measures for higher education alternative providers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<ul>\n<li>government tightens criteria to tighten standards at alternative providers of higher education<\/li>\n<li>measures will be introduced to provide greater protection to students<\/li>\n<li>plan will bring alternative providers\u2019 quality assurance requirements into line with universities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Greg Clark, Minister for Universities, Science and Cities has today (29 January 2015) unveiled a package of new measures to boost the quality of alternative providers in higher education, and to protect the student interest. <\/p>\n<p>The government\u2019s new controls will strengthen the quality requirements around alternative providers in England \u2013 creating a stricter baseline for acceptable quality. <\/p>\n<p>Measures include requiring directors of alternative providers to pass a \u2018fit and proper person\u2019 test, all non-degree awarding powers institutions to be re-designated every year rather than remaining designated indefinitely and creating a Rapid Response Investigatory Team to quickly investigate any serious concerns that may arise at institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Greg Clark, Minister for Universities, Science and Cities said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Britain\u2019s system of higher education is renowned worldwide for its high quality. It is essential that this reputation for quality continues to strengthen.<\/p>\n<p>Alternative providers must contribute to, not detract from, that reputation. The government has clearly taken steps to tighten standards, including requiring all alternative providers to apply for re-designation.<\/p>\n<p>But I believe we should go further, including requiring annual designation, establishing a \u2018fit and proper person\u2019 test for directors of alternative providers, retaining student number controls for providers without degree-awarding powers or who offer validated degrees and requiring a minimum standard of English.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">The reputation for quality of our higher education system is of paramount importance, and I expect all alternative providers to contribute to it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"notes-to-editors\">Notes to Editors:<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>The Written Ministerial Statement that outlines these measures can be found at: <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/documents\/commons-vote-office\/January%202015\/29%20January\/1.BIS-Higher-Ed.pdf\">House of Commons: Written Statement (HCWS239)<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills continues to work with Student Loans Company, the Higher Education Funding Council and the Quality Assurance Agency, to regulate the system and oversee these changes. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Government unveils a package of new measures to boost the quality of alternative providers in higher education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}