British Accred. Council & AOU

I read this article yesterday:

<snip> The British Accreditation Council has recognized the Arab Open University’s branches in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain after approving their academic curricula and programs. It had earlier recognized the university’s six other branches in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Kuwait. <snip>

I'm a little confused about the British Accreditation Council. Is this accreditation above and beyond a royal charter? Does it apply to all tertiary institutions, or just private ones?

Regards,
Adrienne

P.S. Link to article if interested:
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=41163&d=14&m=3&y=2004&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom

 

The British Accreditation Council is a body the DfES appears to recognise as providing genuine quality checks on educational bodies. This includes colleges that provide tuition to degree level as external bodies. (e.g. a number that provide external University of London courses).

I will again try to clarify what I perceive to be the legal position in the UK:-


1] The legal controls in the Edcuation Reform Act 1988 are on the offering of UK degrees and similar UK awards.

2] To be able to offer such an award the body must be 'recognised' by the UK Governement, whcih means it is included in a list maintained by the DfES in Statutory instruments.

3] It is legally possible for an institute to be authorised to offer UK degrees ('recognised') without being a Unversity or having a Royal Charter although the regulations for Scotland seem to have rather more bodies listed than those for England and Wales.

4] It appears to be legally possible for a body to be called a University without having a Royal Charter, although I do not know if there are any such. The Business Names Act requires UK businesses using the word 'university' to have the permission of the Privy Council, who do deal with Royal Charters, but nothing in the Act seems to prevent them giving permisssion even without issuing a charter.

(I could see this happening perhaps with a reputable foreign university that wished to be registered as a UK company)

There is some possiblility of using other legislation to act against some supposedly non-UK universities, however most of it is under the crimiinal burden of proof ( beyond reasonble doubt) rather than civil (balance of probability). Obtaining information in a form acceptable to the Courts is a lengthy process.

A recent case has taken 4 months to get information back from the USA and there is a risk that local Courts might reject the case with the mantra 'Justice delayed is Justice denied'.