UK Accreditation
UK Accreditation under the Points Based System: The Accreditation of Tier 4 (Students) Sponsors
South London Christian College, along with a multitude of independent Higher Education colleges in the UK, is currently applying for accreditation under the UK Government’s new Points Based System for international visa students. We expect this accreditation to be finalised in good time to meet the early 2009 deadline. Meanwhile our international students’ recruitment status remains valid under the current DIUS (formerly DfES) Registration
The UK Government announced in July 2007 a mandatory new requirement for educational establishments like South London Christian College enrolling international students under the Points Based System (PBS). This is set to be introduced for students early in 2009.
The UK Government made it clear that "...for Tier 4 (Students), a prospective college will need to demonstrate that they are a bona fide educational institution accredited by a recognised body".
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation is an independent mark of quality, inspection or review that can be used to demonstrate that an institution is a genuine education provider with sound teaching practices, recruitment procedures and progress monitoring of its students. For Border and Immigration Agency staff (i.e. British High Commission entry clearance officers) responsible for administering the new PBS, accreditation will provide an independent qualitative check on an institution in which the institution has demonstrated it is a genuine education provider rather than operating to facilitate the entry of bogus students to the UK.
The Benefits of Accreditation
Accreditation will support applicants under the PBS, as entry clearance officers will be able to trust the decisions of individual institutions when issuing “Confirmation of Acceptance for Study” to potential students.
The Home Office enlisted the assistance of Ofsted to help it determine which accreditation bodies provide an appropriate test of the bona fides of an educational institution and the following accreditation bodies have now been approved:
- BAC – the British Accreditation Council – which offers a more general accreditation service to cover a wide range of different educational establishments
- ASIC – the Accreditation Service for International Colleges – which also offers a general accreditation service to cover a wide range of different educational establishments
- Accreditation UK – which offers an accreditation service only for English language centres
Source: www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/aboutus/newsarchive/accreditationoft4sponsors