The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has relinquished its role assessing higher education providers in England amid concerns about non-compliance with European standards.

From March 2023, the body will no longer be the Designated Quality Body for the sector, a role it has held since a new regulatory framework was created in 2018.

The QAA said it was stepping back from its responsibilities – which included providing assessments and advice for the Office for Students on quality and standards – because the requirements of the current regulatory approach in England are “not consistent” with standard international practice, set out in the European Standards and Guidelines.

Its registration from the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education was recently suspended and the body has decided it can no longer meet both sets of requirements.

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Vicki Stott, QAA chief executive, said EQAR registration was the “absolute priority” for the QAA so it could continue its work in the other nations of the UK and abroad, and therefore it had “reluctantly decided” it was no longer possible to continue as the DQB.

She said the regulatory system in England has moved away from compliance-based structures to risk-based structures. Although the European system may eventually move in a similar direction, it is further behind in this process, hence why the two systems are currently at odds, she added.

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Ms Stott also said that the English system is non-compliant in terms of the publication of reports and ensuring students serve on review teams and, although as DQB the QAA had recently committed to making these changes, it was not sustainable in the long term to ensure compliance.

Being part of a structure where the quality body does not have autonomy and has to operate within the system set by the OfS further complicates matters, Ms Stott said, as “it is harder to tweak”.

Despite a renewed focus in improving quality across the sector, the QAA and the OfS have had an uneasy relationship since the regulator’s inception.

The QAA has developed a membership offering for institutions separate from its regulatory functions but there have still been concerns about potential conflicts of interests.

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No longer being the DQB will allow QAA to develop a “number of products and services” for its members, Ms Stott said, adding that she felt this would be of “much more value to the sector”.

In a statement, Susan Lapworth, interim chief executive of the OfS, thanked QAA for its work since 2018 and said she understood the decision to step away.

“The OfS’s focus on quality and standards is central to our long-term regulation of the English higher education sector in the interests of students,” she added.

“We have set clear strategic goals to tackle poor quality courses and have recently imposed new and revised requirements for all universities and colleges. 

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“It is important that we can draw on the sector’s expertise, as appropriate, when we assess the performance of universities and colleges. As part of this, we are discussing with Universities UK, and others, whether there is another body that could be designated when the QAA’s role comes to an end.” 

The newly appointed minister for skills, further and higher education, Andrea Jenkyns, said the government "remains committed to robust quality checks in English higher education" and will shortly start discussions with the sector to inform the next steps in deciding how to continue this work once QAA step away. 

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tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com