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.
