British Accreditation Council

The British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education was established in 1984 to provide quality assurance for independent further and higher education in the UK. BAC accreditation is recognised as the clearest mark of educational quality in the private sector. Alongside the British Council, whose Accreditation UK scheme serves as the definitive guide to the country’s English language centres, BAC has overseen the inspection of private post-16 education for over 30 years.

BAC encourages high standards of education offered by independent colleges and providing prospective students with a guide to quality.

Its central office staff, a network of expert inspectors, and consultants help independent education and training providers raise their standards.

BAC accreditation is recognised by the UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI), part of the Home Office, as a qualifying requirement for institutions wishing to enrol students on Short-Term Study Visas: students from outside the EEA will only secure a UK Short-Term Study Visa if they have an offer from an accredited institution.

The British Accreditation Council has been a member of Enqua since 2015, became a member of INQAAHE in 2006 and has a memorandum of agreement with the Quality Assurance Agency. The Chief Executive of the BAC is a member of the British Council’s Accreditation Scheme Advisory Committee. The British Accreditation Council is a stakeholder of the Federation of Awarding Bodies. It also a onto the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) since 2015 .

The charitable objectives of the organisation are:

As well as assisting law enforcement in cases of potential fraud, the British Accreditation Council has provided evidence on the private sector to the UK parliament. In 2008, the charity undertook a research project on private further and higher education in Kosovo, as requested by the British Council and the Kosovo Government. The findings of that project were published in a report in July 2008, which was fully endorsed by the Kosovo Government.

In 2012 the organisation was commissioned along with CFE by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to provide a comprehensive picture of provision by privately funded institutions operating in the UK higher education (HE) sector.

The British Accreditation Council inspects and accredits around 250 organisations within the UK and overseas. An inspection of a private college assesses four main areas:

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