Seek approval if you've not been approved before

The following information is from our QA framework which came into effect on 1 September 2018. 

We also publish a QA handbook with our external QA delivery partner, Mott MacDonald, which sets out the detail of our processes and the evidence that you (and your practice learning partners) will need to provide to demonstrate that you meet our standards.

Submit your proposal

When you think your programme is ready for approval, you should create an account in our QA Link and submit an approval request for your desired programme. Before you can submit your request you will need to provide the following details:

• Confirmation that you are the official correspondent for, or hold a position of equivalent responsibility within the education institution you represent that enables you to enter information on their behalf.
• Confirmation that you have at least one of the following awarding powers – Foundation degree, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree or Doctorate.
• Confirmation that you have arrangements in place with practice learning partners to support any programmes you wish to have approved to run, and that these are sufficient for the number of students you indent to induct onto those courses.

Once you have created your account, you will need to start your request where you will answer our initial proposal questions, setting out:

• the rationale for the proposal and intended programme delivery
• confirmation of the appropriate qualification awarding power
• evidence of resources in place to support the proposal
• details of wider support.

The answers to these questions will enable us to decide whether or not you’re ready to commence the gateway process.

You should request approval to run a programme at least 12 months before you expect your first cohort of students.

What happens next

Once we’ve received your request, we’ll carry out some preliminary checks and then share the information with Mott MacDonald. This can take up to 20 working days, but we’ll let you know when we’ve done this.

Mott MacDonald will then carry out the next steps of the approval process as set out in the QA handbook, which includes requesting and considering evidence and scheduling an approval visit.

After your approval visit, Mott MacDonald will write a report to let us know if they recommend that our standards have been met or not.

We’ll then conduct our internal QA checks and will inform you of our approval decision outcome in the QA Link within 20 working days of receiving their report.

During the approval process, we may identify conditions that will need to be met before our approval can be given.

Once we’ve approved you to run a programme, you’ll become an approved education institution (AEI).

Find out more about seeking approval for subsequent programmes.