Degree awarding powers

When a provider applies for degree awarding powers for the first time, it must apply through one of two routes:

• new degree awarding powers, or 
• full degree awarding powers.

New degree awarding powers

If a provider has been delivering higher education courses for fewer than three years, it will not have a sufficient track record to apply for full degree awarding powers.

Instead, it can apply for new degree awarding powers, which grants powers on a probationary basis. This is usually for four years.

Where we grant a provider new degree awarding powers, we will monitor and assess it during the probationary period. This typically requires the provider to submit regular self-assessments to the OfS and undergo assessments led by assessment teams. We will also assess a provider towards the end of its probationary period (a 'New DAPs end assessment') where it wishes to vary its DAPs authorisation to full degree awarding powers.

A provider applying for new degree awarding powers can apply to award degrees for:

• foundation degrees
• awards up to, and including, bachelors’ degrees
• all taught awards.

For new degree awarding powers, the provider can normally only make awards in the subject areas included in the provider’s New DAPs plan and it cannot validate or subcontract to other providers.

Full degree awarding powers

If a provider has been delivering higher education courses for more than three years, it can apply for full degree awarding powers.

If the OfS authorises these powers, it usually grants them for four years, after which the provider will be able to apply for an authorisation to grant awards without a time limit. We refer to this as ‘indefinite degree awarding powers’.

For full degree awarding powers, the provider can apply for powers that cover specific subjects or all subjects.  

A provider can also apply for full degree awarding powers for the following awards:

• foundation degrees only
• awards up to, and including, bachelors’ degrees
• all taught awards
• research awards (if it already holds or is applying for full degree awarding powers for taught awards).

A provider that has been delivering higher education courses for more than three years can apply for new degree awarding powers, if it prefers. It may, for example, not yet meet all the criteria for full degree awarding powers.

If a provider already has degree awarding powers, it may wish to apply to change the level or subject for which it can award degrees, or apply for indefinite powers. We refer to this as a ‘variation’ of degree awarding powers. 

Research degree awarding powers

Our criteria for authorising degree awarding powers includes specific criteria for research degrees.

If a provider applies for the power to award research degrees, we will assess it against all criteria, as well as the specific research degrees criteria.   

We do this so that we can be sure that the wider arrangements a provider has in place mean that it can offer research awards securely.

This means that even if the provider already has the power to award taught degrees, an assessment for research degree awarding powers would include an assessment against DAPs criteria A-E, as well as F-H and as such would test:

• a provider’s academic governance arrangements (criterion A)
• regulatory frameworks (criterion B1)
• academic standards (criterion B2 and G).

In the same way, a provider applying to award research degrees would need to show how it meets the criterion for ‘scholarship and pedagogical effectiveness of staff’ (criterion C).

It must also show that its teaching staff have the training and resources to maintain and develop research supervision for dissertations.