Leeds handed 'not approved' rating

Leeds University is the first old university to receive a "not approved" rating under the Higher Education Funding Council for England's new teaching quality assessment system. The poor rating came after assessors gave Leeds's communication media studies programme a bottom grade one for quality assurance and enhancement. The university said this week that the programme had excellent grades in the five other quality categories.

A spokeswoman said it was understood inspectors were unhappy with procedures regarding the external examiner's role in classifying modularised degrees.