Many UK institutions offer higher education programmes through partnership links with organisations abroad, or deliver programmes on overseas campuses.
Higher education institutions are responsible for the academic standards of their awards, whether delivered inside or outside of the UK. As part of QAA's work, we review the partnership arrangements that UK higher education institutions have made with organisations in other countries to deliver UK programmes. We also review programmes delivered on the overseas campuses of UK institutions.
It is important to note that it is not QAA's role to review or accredit partner institutions outside the UK. We do, however, provide guidance for UK higher education institutions about selecting partners and agents through our UK Quality Code for Higher Education, Chapter B10.
How is Review of Overseas Provision carried out?
Review of Overseas Provision is carried out according to the same principles and processes as our review methods for higher education institutions:
- it is a peer review, evidence-based process
- the UK higher education institution provides a briefing document describing its overseas provision
- overseas review usually involves a one-day visit of a review team to the UK institution to meet staff and students, and a similar visit to the partner institution overseas.
We conduct Review of Overseas Provision on a country by country basis, rather than at the same time as a university or college's own review. Our method for overseas review is customised according to the country in which programmes are located, and the type of programmes being covered.
As well as reviewing the partnership arrangements of institutions, we also gather information about the activities of UK institutions in a particular country. We produce reports about individual institutions' arrangements, and often an overview of UK higher education in a particular part of the world.
Some institutions with overseas provision may not be reviewed, but may take part in the information gathering exercise which feeds into the country overview, or into case studies exploring particular aspects of overseas partnership provision.
Key reference points
The key reference points used in Review of Overseas Provision can be found in our section on assuring standards and quality. From December 2011 the UK Quality Code for Higher Education has replaced the Academic Infrastructure as the core guidance published by QAA.
Recent overseas reviews and reports