Dear Colleague
The QAA Board has reviewed and revised the policy on the disclosure of records relating to applications for degree-awarding powers and university title in the light of QAA’s standards of accountability and openness and in response to external requests for information. As a result, information that had previously been held to be non-disclosable may now be disclosed after a defined period of time, as detailed below.
Policy on the disclosure of records relating to applications for degree-awarding powers and university title
At its July 2008 meeting, the QAA Board approved a revised policy on the disclosure of records relating to applications for degree-awarding powers and university title. Under this policy, all records are closed until the Privy Council’s decision on an application has been made public.
Once the Privy Council’s decision has been made public, access to the following records will be given, on request:
- documents supplied by an applicant organisation that are already in the public domain
- routine administrative information
- Advisory Committee on Degree Awarding Powers (ACDAP) minutes from July 2008 forward (with references to ongoing scrutiny activity removed), excluding annexes prepared for the Board relating to final degree-awarding powers/university title reports
- publicly available documents and reference material used by ACDAP
- Board minutes (currently available on QAA’s website)
- QAA’s advice to the Privy Council.
Public disclosure of the final institutional assessors’ report will be made following publication of the first audit report after a successful application. The report may still be subject to commercial interest redactions. The organisation, which will have received the final report on the Privy Council’s decision becoming public, may grant access to the report before this time.
Ten years after the Privy Council’s notification, access will be given, on request, to all remaining degree-awarding powers/university title records, subject to any remaining issues of commercial confidentiality.
Institutional assessors’ report
Successful applicants that did not receive their institutional assessors’ report at the time the Privy Council decision was made public can now request a copy of that report from QAA, and have the opportunity of identifying any commercially sensitive information.
QAA will not release a report, in response to an information request, until the organisation concerned has received a copy of its report and has had the opportunity to identify commercially sensitive information.
Invitation to comment
QAA has based its decision on delaying disclosure of most records relating to an application for degree-awarding powers or university title on consideration of the assurance of confidentiality contained in the degree-awarding powers guidelines and the ‘chilling’ effect that knowledge that the information would be made public could have on the applicant organisation’s approach to its self-analysis and on the views expressed in the institutional assessors’ report. At present, institutions trust QAA’s judgments and the expression of those judgments and are willing to engage in a frank and forthright way in the process. Were the expression of QAA’s position and the background material all to be made public, the impact upon that confidence could be great.
To support QAA’s decision-making process, organisations that have gone through the degree-awarding powers or university title application process, or those that may consider doing so in the future, are invited to share their views on this subject. All replies will be collated and retained anonymously.
Please email dapconsultation@qaa.ac.uk or send your responses by 23 December 2008 to DAP consultation at QAA, Southgate House, Southgate Street, Gloucester GL1 1UB.
Yours sincerely
Peter Williams
Chief Executive
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