The University of London welcomes the fact that the QAA has broad confidence in the standards of the University of London degree as delivered by the twenty Colleges of the University and the External System.  To achieve this, all twenty of the University’s Colleges and the External System have been subject to separate audits by the QAA.

A broad confidence judgement is a clear indication that the degree process is functioning well and that academic standards and academic quality continue to be maintained by the University of London. The University provides high quality education to citizens of the U.K., the Commonwealth and the world as it has done since 1836 and will continue to do in the future.

The University of London operates through a unique federal system quite different to the systems which operate in unitary universities. Under our federal system the Colleges and other constituent elements of the University have an individual and collective responsibility for maintaining and guaranteeing the quality and standards of the University of London degree – it is they that constitute the University of London.

The audit has produced a set of recommendations which appear to have been made on the basis of a misunderstanding of these arrangements. The University proposes to respond to the recommendations by amending its relevant Ordinance to emphasise the importance of timeliness in exchanging quality-related information between the Colleges - and will also be taking forward the changes envisaged in its Self-Evaluation Document. However, more extensive implementation would necessitate alteration of the governance arrangements of the University in a way which is unacceptable to the Colleges and which it is beyond the remit of the QAA to require. Furthermore, the recommendations would impose an additional costly and unnecessary layer of quality assurance bureaucracy upon the autonomous Colleges which have already demonstrated to the satisfaction of the QAA their ability to manage the academic quality and standards of the University of London degree.  

For further information contact:
Binda Rai
Head of Communications
The University of London

Tel: 020 7862 8005
Mobile: 0792 047 6483
Email: binda.rai@london.ac.uk