Recommendation(s): 23

Recommendation 23: We recommend that: the Quality Assurance Agency should specify criteria for franchising arrangements; these criteria should rule out serial franchising, and include a normal presumption that the franchisee should have only one higher education partner; franchising partners should jointly review and, if necessary, amend existing arrangements to ensure that they meet the criteria, and should both certify to the Agency that arrangements conform with the criteria; there should be periodic checks by the Agency on the operation of franchise arrangements to verify compliance; after 2001, no franchising should take place either in the UK or abroad except where compliance with the criteria has been certified by the Quality Assurance Agency.

4.9 The Committee’s recommendations here are designed to be an important safeguard for students and for the reputation of UK higher education overseas. The QAA will draw up criteria for franchising and other collaborative arrangements. However, many responses to consultation asked for greater flexibility in allowing franchisees to have more than one HE partner. The QAA may wish to consider, in consultation with the HE and FE sectors, whether circumstances can be defined in which such arrangements would be acceptable without prior approval and provide the safeguards the Committee considered to be needed.

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