The Quality Assurance Agency has withdrawn accreditation from one of its Authorised Validating Agencies after uncovering serious failings with its stewardship of the quality and standards of access programmes.
The QAA has identified difficulties with 11 of the 12 "authorised validating agencies" that approve access courses. Only one AVA - the Open College Network for Central England - has so far been awarded an unconditional renewal of its licence.
The QAA works under contract to the Department for Education and Employment to formally recognise access courses for students without traditional entry qualifications seeking a university place. It sub-contracts responsibility for the validation of individual courses to a national network of 30 AVAs, of which 12 have come up for renewal.
Six have been given "conditional" licence renewals, four have merited "provisional" licence renewals, and one - The Tyne and Border Counties Access Partnership - has had its licence withdrawn.
Other problems have been identified in the operations of the Open College of the North West AVA, the Bedfordshire Access Consortium and the Open College Network, South East Wales, which were given provisional licences with further reviews before full licences are granted.