The New UKQuality Framework

In August 1997 the new Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) took over the quality assurance functions of the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) and the Higher Education Funding Councils (HEFC). Just over two years later the QAA has announced the final important details of the new ‘Quality Framework’ which will operate in England and Northern Ireland from 2002 (in Scotland it will operate from the start of the 2000/01 academic year, the present time scale in Wales is uncertain). This article first describes the historical background to the new framework. It then outlines its main features. The main part of the article assesses the new framework against a number of ‘quality criteria’ derived from study of various external quality assurance regimes. The article raises questions in particular about the complexity and feasibility of the new framework and its ability in practice to produce reliable and consistent outcomes and about the extent to which it will accommodate increasing diversity of institutional mission and practice. It concludes that the QAA will face very considerable challenges in making the new framework effective and suitable to the rapidly changing nature of the provision it seeks to regulate.