What does it mean to be an 'accredited college'?

This article will aim to explain what an accredited college is and how they compare to one with acreditation.

What is an accredited college?

Accredited colleges and universities are ones which have the legal right to allow overseas students to enrol on their courses. From 2009, immigration rules meant foreign nationals would only be awarded a visa to study at such a college making them unable to study at an unaccredited one.

Bodies which offer accreditation

There are a number of bodies which offer accreditation. Amongst them are The Privy Council, The British Accreditation Council (BAC), Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC) and finally, the British Council which veto English language courses. The aforementioned councils are all recognised by the Government and offer accreditation to institutions within the private sector. Publicly funded colleges and universities are are also able to apply for accreditation.

Following accreditation

Once a university has been accredited, it is then able to enrol overseas students and becomes known as a 'recognised body' and is given 'degree awarding status'. Simply put, they are legally able to award degrees to their students.

Unaccredited institutions

Despite an explanation of the accreditation system of educational institutions being free available, there are still unaccredited colleges and universities that are unauthorised to operate and are offering bogus courses and qualifications. The mass majority of these bogus establishments are based outside the United Kingdom but a few will claim to be have links with the country. If you are looking for a comprehensive list of all the accredited colleges in the UK, then you can find these by doing the following: - Vvisit the British Accreditation Council's website at The-bac.org and then click on the 'colleges' option on their navigation menu.
- You will then be able to click on a link entitled 'Browse our list of UK accredited institutions' which will take you to the page with the full list.
- Alternatively, you can search for a college by typing in its name or typing in the region its located in to check that it has been accredited. Institutions given the thumbs up from BAC can then join Study UK, the association for BAC-accredited establishments. It has given a voice to these colleges within the higher education sector since 2007.