Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect of proposals arising from the Review of Quality Assessment on the (a) cohesiveness of the UK-wide system of quality assessment and (b) adoption of that system by other countries.

Higher Education is a devolved matter. In England the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has statutory responsibility for assessing quality in the provision that it funds. There are parallel quality assessment (QA) arrangements in place that apply to alternative providers.

Officials in my Department have held a number of discussions with the devolved administrations and with HEFCE regarding HEFCE’s recent Review of Quality Assessment and its outcomes, including on how we are maintaining a cohesive, UK-wide approach to quality assessment. Further information on our future approach to quality assessment, across all types of HE providers, will be announced when we publish the response to our Higher Education Green Paper.