QAA highlights unintended consequences of UK Government’s quality proposals

QAA welcomes the Government’s Post-16 Education and Skills white paper setting out its vision – among other things – for quality and standards in the higher education sector. It is refreshing to see a plan for quality that refrains from talking down the sector.  

However, as the UK’s expert quality body, QAA also has concerns about potential unintended consequences of some of the proposals. 

Financial incentives for quality 

We believe that student number caps for discrete pockets of poor-quality provision are a sensible lever to limit the risk to students.  

However, we have significant reservations about making future fee uplifts conditional on the quality of higher education. Quality costs money. This proposal risks harming a provider’s ability to address the problems identified, locking its students into a cycle of poor-quality provision. 

Academic standards 

Academic standards are the bedrock of trust in the UK’s higher education sector, so we welcome the Government’s recognition of their importance. However, academic standards, and the systems that uphold them, apply across the whole of the UK. Any subsequent proposals on academic standards that apply only to England risk undermining the whole UK-wide system and its reputation. This is true of any activity around grade inflation, academic integrity and external examining.

We welcome the Government’s recognition of the need to build more evidence around the external examining system and stand ready to support that process. This process needs to be UK-wide. The review of the external examining system that QAA, Universities UK and GuildHE undertook in 2021 should form the foundation of this evidence base.

What this means for quality and standards 

The Government’s ambition and vision for quality and standards in this white paper are laudable. But we should also note that these quality proposals rely heavily on a system that is currently in flux. As a result, providers know only that they will be held accountable for falling foul of a system, without knowing for certain what that system will look like. 

We look forward to working with the Government, the Office for Students, and the sector as they work to implement the white paper’s proposals, including through the support QAA can give to providers to meet quality expectations. QAA’s expertise and position as a UK-wide quality body will be important in preventing unintended consequences of the proposals around quality and standards, and realising the Government’s ambition for the sector. 

On Thursday 30 October, QAA will host an online briefing event which will consider what the proposals might mean for quality and standards, how QAA will be engaging with the process, and what it means for you and your institution. QAA Members can register for this event on our website.