The new English quality assurance régime

England is developing a new quality assurance régime that will come into effect in October 2011. A new funding régime will operate from the following year, together with new rules to ease the participation of private higher education providers. This article describes and analyses the new quality and funding régimes. It argues that the greater competitive and resourcing pressures that will flow from these changes will place severe strains on the new quality régime, to the point where further changes may be unavoidable.