ASIC
is an independent body, recognised by the Border and Immigration Agency
(Home Office) and approved by Ofsted, which provides an accreditation
service for independent further and higher education colleges.
ASIC
accreditation gives reassurance to potential international (overseas)
students, their parents and education representatives that the
operation of their chosen college conforms with relevant United Kingdom
laws and offers genuine courses, which are delivered to appropriate
standards with acceptable quality, and which lead to recognised
qualifications. Accreditation also provides reassurance to the Border
and Immigration Agency that the college meets their requirements and,
in general, does not harm the perceived quality of the United Kingdom
education provision.
Accreditation
is based upon the on-site inspection of the full range of the college’s
provision and supporting activities, together with a detailed
consideration of the college’s external (statutory) and internal
documentation, which helps to ensure that the ongoing operation of the
college is maintained at an acceptable level.
In
general, ASIC will consider applications for accreditation from
colleges which offer full-time courses (typically lasting 30 weeks per
calendar year with 15 hours’ tuition per week) leading to awards, which
may be “internal”, that is the college’s own awards, or “external”,
such as those validated by professional/examining bodies or UK
universities and moderated by external examiners or assessors. The
accreditation process also includes a consideration of whether or not
the academic level of internal awards is appropriate to enable the
students to progress to further study within the college or elsewhere
in the UK, or to relevant employment. Colleges are strongly recommended
to involve experienced external moderators in the assessment of their
internal courses to ensure that this is the case.
Colleges
delivering courses leading to awards and degrees from overseas
institutions may also be accredited provided that the awarding bodies
are formally recognised as being bona fide.
