Glossary and explanations
The following definitions and explanations are offered for terms which are commonly used in this report.
Access As a proper noun, used generically to indicate the totality of Access to Higher Education activities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Access programme Used generically to describe a programme of study which has been recognised by an AVA as an appropriate preparation for higher education for mature students and meeting the minimum requirements for the award of an Access to Higher Education certificate. Access programmes are targeted, in particular, at adults who may not have undertaken formal education for a number of years or at groups who are under-represented in higher education. Some Access programmes are broadly based; others offer specific discipline preparation; nearly all include study and/or other core skills. Most programmes can be completed in one year on a full-time basis; many are also available in part-time modes. The majority of Access programmes are offered in further education colleges, but some are provided in other locations, for example, adult education centres, community centres and higher education institutions.
ARLC Access Recognition and Licensing Committee: the body appointed by the QAA Board with responsibility for the overall operation of the Recognition Scheme. The Committee monitors AVAs through the receipt and scrutiny of annual reports, and standard data about recognised programmes and students. The ARLC also oversees the process of periodic review of AVAs.
AVA Authorised Validating Agency: a body licensed by QAA to undertake the development and recognition of individual Access programmes, the monitoring of recognised programmes, and the award of Access to Higher Education certificates to successful students. AVAs comprise both institutions that develop and deliver Access programmes, principally further education colleges, and those that receive students who successfully complete Access programmes, principally higher education institutions.
AVA review The process of periodic review of AVAs which ensures that they continue to be fit bodies to hold an AVA licence, and that they continue to conform with the principles, criteria, and operational guidance set out in the Recognition Scheme.
Licensing criteria Principles and Criteria for the Licensing of Authorised Validating Agencies: that section of the Recognition Scheme which sets out the principles and criteria established by QAA to which it refers when considering the fitness of a body to hold an AVA licence. The principles and criteria have been developed to provide assurance of the quality of the structures, operations and procedures of AVAs, in order to ensure that they are able to secure the quality of Access provision, its continuing fitness for purpose and the sufficiency and consistency of its standards. The licensing criteria are used both for the consideration of applications for new licences, and for the periodic review of existing AVAs. The licensing criteria are available at www.qaa.ac.uk/crntwork/access/recog_principles.htm
NOCN The National Open College Network: the central organisation for the Open College Networks (OCNs) based across the UK. NOCN licenses and audits the OCNs' activities. Most AVAs are also OCNs and are engaged in other types of education and training in addition to Access provision. In this report, these are sometimes referred to as OCN/AVAs.
QAA The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education: the regulatory body for the national recognition of Access programmes. QAA is responsible for undertaking reviews and audits of the standards and quality of higher education. In licensing AVAs, QAA is responsible for assuring the quality of recognised Access programmes, and the adequacy of standards of student achievement as a preparation for higher education.
Recogntion Scheme The QAA Recognition Scheme for Access to Higher Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: the scheme established by QAA through which it meets its responsiblilities as the regulatory body. The Recognition Scheme document is available at www.qaa.ac.uk/crntwork/access/recog_intro.htm
Introduction
The purpose of this report
1 The basis of this report is a consideration of the full cycle of periodic licence reviews of Authorised Validating Agencies (AVAs) undertaken between 1999 and 2004 by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in its role as the national regulatory body for Access provision. The major purposes of the report are:
- to identify and consider issues which have emerged through the process of AVA review and which will assist QAA to develop the Recognition Scheme for Access provision;
- to identify and publicise good practice in AVAs;
- to identify and discuss areas of practice in AVAs which might be strengthened and developed further;
- to reflect on the nature of the process used to undertake AVA review and to discuss its future development.
A brief history of the national organisation and management of Access
2 Since their beginnings, the primary purpose of Access programmes has been the provision for mature students of an alternative, and more appropriate, preparation for higher education. Although definitions of 'mature' may have changed, and continue to change, this primary purpose remains as a fundamental principle for Access programmes. They are designed to respond to the need to broaden participation in higher education and, to cite the current Recognition Scheme documentation, they 'assume the need for, and desirability of, increased participation by those groups which are currently under-represented in higher education' and are 'built on the principle of extending opportunities for progression to higher education for those adults who have benefited least from their past educational experience'.
3 The systematic organisation of Access provision on a national basis can be traced to the 1987 White Paper, Higher Education: Meeting the Challenge, which called for the development of 'a framework within which the availability of well devised Access courses can be increased'. Subsequently, in 1989, the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), in cooperation with the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, established a national framework which was managed by CNAA's Access Courses Recognition Group (ACRG). The ACRG began to issue initial licences to AVAs in 1990. Under these licences, AVAs were permitted to approve Access courses offered by a range of providers including both higher education institutions (HEIs) and further education colleges.
4 With the closure of CNAA in 1992, responsibility for Access was passed to the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) and managed by HEQC's Credit and Access Advisory Group. The process of transfer was facilitated by the preparation and publication of A consolidated bulletin on the framework of national arrangements for the recognition of Access Courses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In 1995, HEQC reviewed its arrangements for Access and created a new managing committee, the Access Courses Recognition Subgroup.
5 A further process of transfer occurred in 1997 with the establishment of QAA which inherited the responsibility for Access recognition from HEQC. In December of that year, QAA created the Access Recognition and Licensing Committee (ARLC) to undertake the detailed work of the licensing and review of AVAs. In 1998, it also established the Access Recognition Advisory Committee as a consultative body, comprising Access practitioners and representatives from other interested bodies.
6 An initial version of the Recognition Scheme documentation was approved in 1998 and then expanded and revised for publication in early 1999. All licence reviews were conducted under the regulations of this scheme until 2001, when detailed criteria for the licensing of AVAs were developed and introduced.
7 In January 2003, the White Paper, The Future of Higher Education, invited QAA to 'come forward with proposals to modernise the criteria for Access Courses so that they are sufficiently flexible and attractive to meet the needs of today's adult learners'. The report of a QAA research project designed to meet this request was published in May 2004.
A brief history of AVA review
8 With the first AVA licences issued in 1990, an initial pilot review process was introduced by CNAA in 1991. A complete cycle of reviews was then conducted in the five-year period to 1996. Initially, these reviews were conducted through a single meeting with the AVA. In 1994, the process was revised to focus on self-appraisal by the AVA with the assistance of 'mentors' appointed by HEQC, followed by an engagement with an HEQC panel. In all, a full cycle of 38 AVA reviews was conducted in this period. In preparation for a second cycle of reviews, initial work on a Learning from AVA review report was undertaken in 1996-97 but was not completed before the transfer of responsibilities for Access to QAA. HEQC also commissioned a more general review of Access, however, and the associated report (Access Course Recognition and the Higher Education Quality Council: a review), published in 1995, made a number of recommendations about the process of periodic review, which were taken forward by QAA in the development of the AVA review process.
9 The second cycle of reviews - which is the subject of this current report - began in April 1999 following the approval by the QAA Board of Directors of the QAA Recognition Scheme for Access to Higher Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In the period from 1999 to 2004, a full programme of 28 licence reviews was conducted and three applications for new AVA licences were received, of which two were approved. This process of periodic licence review has been complemented by the submission to QAA of an annual review by each AVA. Piloted in 1999, the current format for the preparation, receipt and consideration of these annual reviews was established in 2000.
Structure, scope and methodology of this report
Structure
10 In broad outline, this report is structured into two main sections:
- Learning about AVAs, which focuses on what the review reports reveal about the operation of AVAs, how they fulfil their responsibilities for the recognition and quality assurance of individual Access programmes, and how they meet their obligations under the Recognition Scheme;
- Learning about AVA review, which focuses on the nature of the review process itself and its future development.
11 An internal structure for the first of these two sections, Learning about AVAs, has been created by using the seven principles for licensing and re-licensing of AVAs as an organising device. The principles provide a context for the more detailed criteria which define the requirements for the award and renewal of AVA licences. After a period of consultation in 2001, the principles were introduced in January 2002 and were used specifically for the purpose of licence review for the first time in March 2002. Since that date, the 10 licence reviews which have been undertaken have used the principles as a structure for the subsequent reports. In this context, the principles thus provide a logical structure for the section, Learning about AVAs. It is acknowledged that this section also covers 14 reviews which preceded the introduction of the principles in 2002. However, in essence, the principles simply extracted and formalised the key elements of the initial Recognition Scheme approved in 1999. While the reports of the pre-2002 reviews could not have been formally structured using the principles, it is clear that the criteria by which they were conducted were broadly similar, and that the contents of the reports thus lend themselves readily to a structure which uses the current principles.
12 The seven licensing principles, and the abbreviations used for each of them in this report, are listed below.
Principle 1
The organisation has a structure which is based on a partnership of members, including institutions which provide Access to HE programmes and institutions of higher education. (Structure and membership)
Principle 2
The organisation has governance structures which allow it to discharge its AVA responsibilities securely. ( Governance)
Principle 3
The organisation is aware of, and in a position to meet, its legal and public obligations. (Legal identity)
Principle 4
The organisation is able to manage effectively its AVA responsibilities and the structure which supports them. ( Management and administration)
Principle 5
The organisation is able to assure the quality and fitness for purpose of Access to HE programmes at the point at which they are granted formal recognition. (Development and approval of programmes)
Principle 6
The organisation is able to safeguard the continuing quality of Access to HE programmes, and to secure the standards of achievement of students awarded the Access to HE certificate. (Standards of achievement)
Principle 7
The organisation is underpinned by structures and processes which enable it to review, evaluate and develop the Access to HE provision for which it has responsibility. (Review and evaluation)
13 In Learning about AVAs, each principle will be set out again with:
- the licensing criteria which it generates;
- a brief consideration of its purpose and role in the process of AVA review;
- a discussion of the major issues to emerge from AVA review;
- a listing of the commendations made by review teams;
- some suggestions for areas where further development may be needed (these areas are deliberately broad and synoptic rather simply repeating the detailed conditions and recommendations which may have been set during the review cycle).
14 The second of the two sections, Learning about AVA review, has a simpler structure which considers the logistics and mechanics of the review process, some qualitative analysis of it by all participants, and some discussion of future options.
Scope
15 Appendix B to this report records the 31 separate 'engagements' between QAA and AVAs in the period since April 1999. The three engagements which relate to applications for a new licence to operate as an AVA have been excluded from Learning about AVAs, since the nature of these exercises differs from the standard review of an existing licence. However, as the basic methodology used to consider a new licence application is broadly similar to that for licence review, account has been taken of the reports in Learning about AVA review. A similar decision has been reached in respect of the four AVAs which underwent review in the period covered by this report but which are no longer operating as AVAs. It did not appear appropriate to include discussion of AVA practice which is now inaccessible, although the relevant reports and other related documentation have informed the discussions contained in Learning about AVA review. Hence, the documentary basis for Learning about AVAs comprises the remaining 24 review reports listed as part of Appendix B.
Methodology
16 This report is based on a qualitative consideration of the published reports described in paragraph 15 above. For Learning about AVA review, some additional material has been taken into account mostly comprising written feedback, where it has been received, from AVAs following review, and the feedback reports which are compiled by members of review teams. These documentary sources have been analysed for recurring or common themes which, where identified, have become the focus of the report. There has been no process of selection in terms of the documentary evidence: all review reports and all submitted feedback has been taken into consideration.
17 From the beginning of the cycle, all reports of AVA reviews have contained summary lists of points of commendation, conditions related to the renewal of the licence, and recommendations to the AVA on a range of other issues. There has been no attempt to use such summaries for any quantitative analysis although the preponderance of particular issues arising through the commendations, conditions and recommendations has in some instances been useful in determining which areas may be of most value for analysis and discussion.
18 Direct quotations from review reports are included at appropriate points in the text but are not referenced to individual AVAs: this document is not an attempt to undertake individual reviews again but is more interested in what can be learned in general from the overall process of AVA review. In one case, however - the listing of points of commendation in Learning about AVAs - individual AVAs have been named. The reason for this exception is to meet one of the purposes of this report which is to identify and publicise good practice. Although it is understood that some of the commendations may now relate to practice which has been developed further or superseded, QAA would be grateful if AVAs were willing to respond to requests they may receive for details of particular aspects of their good practice which might be made as a result of this report. A process of selection has been used in the choice of points of commendation. Those very occasional points which made direct reference to individual post-holders (who may no longer be in post) have been excluded, together with any points which were particularly fixed at the point in time of the review.
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