Assuring academic standards and quality

The QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) develops and maintains key documents that are used by higher education providers to help them meet UK expectations about standards and quality. This work is done through close collaboration with the higher education sector.

For details of how they go about this, please visit:

• The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education - About Us (external page)

Central to the work of assuring standards and quality is UK Quality Code for Higher Education (The Quality Code) which sets out the expectations all providers of UK higher education are required to meet. It gives all higher education providers a shared starting point for setting, describing and assuring the academic standards of their higher education awards and programmes and the quality of the learning opportunities they provide. The Quality Code has three Parts, on academic standards, academic quality and information about higher education provision. Each of these is subdivided into Chapters covering specific themes.  The Quality Code is the core reference point used in all QAA review activity:

• The UK Quality Code for Higher Education (external page)

In addition to the Quality Code, the QAA provides the following information to help ensure academic standards and quality:

• Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications (PDF document)
• Subject Benchmark statements (external page)