Excuses, excuses

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) now requires all private UK-based collaborative partners of British universities to be further accredited by one of a small number of designated private bodies, even if they are already accredited by their partner institutions. But the universities themselves need no such accreditation. Why not? The answer given to me by the UKBA is that they are all inspected by the Quality Assurance Agency. But since the QAA agenda (for what it is worth) has nothing to do with the desiderata of the UKBA, this excuse strikes me as lame.

Geoffrey Alderman, University of Buckingham.