The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) today launched a consultation on a more risk-based approach to quality assurance of higher education.

GuildHE CEO, Andy Westwood, said:

“One of the great features of quality assurance for higher education in this country has always been that students can have confidence in the standards and quality of degree programmes wherever, and however, they choose to study. I’m glad that this new consultation recognises what has been achieved to date and looks to build on that for the future.

“I welcome the fact that, in looking to move to a more risk based approach, the proposals focus on the individual record and circumstances of higher education providers rather than drawing arbitrary distinctions between different kinds of providers. We will need to look in more detail at how that might work in practice and I am sure GuildHE member institutions will want to discuss the proposals with their students. After all, safeguarding the interests of current and future students is what is important here.”

ENDS

For more information and comment, please contact:

Andy Westwood
Tel: 020 7387 7711
Mobile: 07970 007142
Email: andy.westwood@guildhe.ac.uk

Notes to editors

1. GuildHE is a recognised higher education representative body. For a list of GuildHE institutions, please visit: https://www.guildhe.ac.uk/en/members-list/
2. The consultation is being published on the HEFCE website – https://www.hefce.ac.uk/