Securing student success: Regulatory framework for higher education in England
Last updated: 24 November 2022
Annex C – Guidance on the criteria for the authorisation for DAPs
Overarching criterion for the authorisation for DAPs
The overarching criterion for the authorisation for DAPs is:
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For New DAPs |
An emerging self-critical, cohesive academic community with a clear commitment to the assurance of standards supported by effective (in prospect) quality systems |
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For Full DAPs |
A self-critical, cohesive academic community with a proven commitment to the assurance of standards supported by effective quality systems |
The underpinning criteria for the different types of DAPs authorisation are set out below. These provide a framework to accommodate subject specific and level specific DAPs, without the need for separate sets of criteria. Differentiation for the different types of powers will be achieved through a tailored scrutiny process in which both the provider’s submission of evidence and the scrutiny itself are focussed on the subject(s) or qualification level(s) for which powers are being sought. Some criteria and evidence requirements, for example those relating to academic governance, will apply in the same way regardless of the type of powers applied for. For other criteria focussing on staff expertise and learning resources, a provider will only need to demonstrate competence in the relevant subject(s) and level(s).
Underpinning criteria for taught DAPs
A: Academic governance
Criterion A1: Academic governance
An organisation granted degree awarding powers has effective academic governance, with clear and appropriate lines of accountability for its academic responsibilities.
Academic governance, including all aspects of the control and oversight of its higher education provision, is conducted in partnership with its students.
Where an organisation granted degree awarding powers works with other organisations to deliver learning opportunities, it ensures that its governance and management of such opportunities is robust and effective and that decisions to work with other organisations are the result of a strategic approach rather than opportunism.
Explanation
There must be sound academic governance and management structures with integrity in all respects, so that there can be full public confidence in the integrity of the provider’s qualifications. There should be appropriate safeguards to ensure that if the organisation decides to work with other organisations, these arrangements do not jeopardise academic standards or the quality of programmes. Such arrangements remain the ultimate responsibility of the organisation with degree awarding powers which must ensure that its oversight is effective for all its provision.
Seeking to engage students as partners is an important part of the academic governance and management of academic standards and quality, as is effective oversight of the information which the organisation produces about its provision for all its stakeholders, especially prospective, current and completed students.
Evidence requirement
To assist in demonstrating that criterion A1 is met, the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
Its higher education mission and strategic direction and associated policies are coherent, published, understood and applied consistently.
Its academic policies support its higher education mission, aims and objectives.
There is clarity and differentiation of function and responsibility at all levels in the organisation in relation to its academic governance structures and arrangements for managing its higher education provision.
The function and responsibility of the senior academic authority is clearly articulated and consistently applied.
There is appropriate depth and strength of academic leadership.
It develops, implements and communicates its policies and procedures in collaboration with its staff and students and external stakeholders.
It will manage successfully the responsibilities that would be vested in it were it to be granted degree awarding powers.
Students individually and collectively are engaged in the governance and management of the organisation and its higher education provision, with students supported, to be able to engage effectively.
Where the organisation works with, or proposes to work with, other organisations to deliver learning opportunities, the arrangements are based on a strategic approach, informed by the effective assessment of risk including the carrying out of due diligence. They are defined in a written legal agreement and are subject to the same robust oversight and governance as the rest of the organisation’s provision.
An organisation granted degree awarding powers has in place transparent and comprehensive academic frameworks and regulations to govern how it awards academic credit and qualifications.
A degree awarding organisation maintains a definitive record of each programme and qualification that it approves (and of subsequent changes to it) which constitutes the reference point for delivery and assessment of the programme, its monitoring and review, and for the provision of records of study to students and alumni.
Explanation
The security of the academic standards of qualifications depends in large measure on the academic frameworks and regulations which govern their award. These can be expected to cover a wide variety of topics ranging from the approval of degree schemes, the use or not of credit, through to the conduct of student assessments and appeals against academic decisions.
Organisations that award degrees are required to have in place a comprehensive set of regulations covering these matters. These academic frameworks and regulations are approved by the organisation’s senior academic authority.
Evidence requirement
To assist in demonstrating that Criterion B1 is met, the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
The academic frameworks and regulations governing its higher education provision (covering, for example, student admissions, assessment, progression, award, appeals and complaints) are appropriate to its current status and are implemented fully and consistently.
It has created, in readiness, one or more academic frameworks and regulations which will be appropriate for the granting of its own higher education qualifications.
Definitive and up-to-date records of each qualification to be awarded and each programme being offered by the organisation are being maintained. These records are used as the basis for the delivery and assessment of each programme and there is evidence that students and alumni are provided with records of study.
Criterion B2 – Academic standards
An organisation granted degree awarding powers has clear and consistently applied mechanisms for setting and maintaining the academic standards of its higher education qualifications.
Organisations with degree awarding powers are expected to demonstrate that they are able to design and deliver courses and qualifications that meet the threshold academic standards described in the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ). Organisations with degree awarding powers are expected to demonstrate that the standards that they set and maintain above the threshold are reliable over time and reasonably comparable to those set and achieved by other UK degree awarding bodies.
Evidence requirement
To assist in demonstrating that criterion B2 is met, the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
Its higher education qualifications are offered at levels that correspond to the relevant levels of The Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree Awarding Bodies.
The setting and maintaining of academic standards takes appropriate account of relevant external points of reference and external and independent points of expertise, including students.
Its programme approval arrangements are robust, applied consistently, and ensure that academic standards are set at a level which meets the UK threshold standard for the qualification and are in accordance with their own academic frameworks and regulations.
Credit and qualifications will be awarded only where the achievement of relevant learning outcomes (module learning outcomes in the case of credit and programme outcomes in the case of qualifications) has been demonstrated through assessment, and both the UK threshold standards and the academic standards of the relevant degree awarding body have been satisfied.
Its programme approval, monitoring and review arrangements are robust, applied consistently and explicitly address whether the UK threshold academic standards are achieved and whether the academic standards required by the individual degree awarding body are being maintained.
In establishing, and then maintaining, threshold academic standards and comparability of standards with other providers of equivalent level qualifications, it makes use of appropriate external and independent expertise.
Criterion B3 Quality of the academic experience
Organisations with degree awarding powers are expected to demonstrate that they are able to design and deliver courses and qualifications that provide a high quality academic experience to all students from all backgrounds, irrespective of their location, mode of study, academic subject, protected characteristics, previous educational background or nationality. Learning opportunities are consistently and rigorously quality assured.
Explanation
Organisations offering higher education awards are expected to consider carefully the purposes and objectives of the programmes they are offering. They are also expected to design their curricula, learning and teaching activities and associated resources, and assessment and feedback, in a way that will give diligent students the best chance of achieving their purposes and objectives and the threshold academic standards for the qualification being sought. Organisations offering higher education qualifications must have the means of establishing for themselves that their intentions are, in practice, being met.
Evidence requirement
To assist in demonstrating that Criterion B3 is met the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
Design and approval of programmes
The organisation operates effective processes for the design, development and approval of programmes.
Relevant staff are informed of, and provided with guidance and support on, these procedures and their roles and responsibilities in relation to them.
Responsibility for approving new programme proposals is clearly assigned, including the involvement of external expertise, where appropriate, and subsequent action is carefully monitored.
Coherence of programmes with multiple elements or alternative pathways is secured and maintained.
Close links are maintained between learning support services and the organisation’s programme planning and approval arrangements.
Learning and teaching
The organisation articulates and implements a strategic approach to learning and teaching which is consistent with its stated academic objectives.
The organisation maintains physical, virtual and social learning environments that are safe, accessible and reliable for every student, promoting dignity, courtesy and respect in their use.
Robust arrangements exist for ensuring that the learning opportunities provided to those of its students that may be studying at a distance from the organisation are effective.
Every student is enabled to monitor their progress and further their academic development.
Assessment
The organisation operates valid and reliable processes of assessment, including for the recognition of prior learning, which enable every student to demonstrate the extent to which they have achieved the intended learning outcomes for the credit or qualification being sought.
Staff and students engage in dialogue to promote a shared understanding of the basis on which academic judgements are made.
Students are provided with opportunities to develop an understanding of, and the necessary skills to demonstrate, good academic practice.
The organisation operates processes for preventing, identifying, investigating and responding to unacceptable academic practice.
Processes for marking assessments and for moderating marks are clearly articulated and consistently operated by those involved in the assessment process.
External examining
The organisation makes scrupulous use of external examiners including in the moderation of assessment tasks and student assessed work.
The organisation gives full and serious consideration to the comments and recommendations contained in external examiners’ reports and provides external examiners with a considered and timely response to their comments and recommendations.
Academic appeals and student complaints
The organisation has effective procedures for handling academic appeals and student complaints about the quality of the academic experience; these procedures are fair, accessible and timely, and enable enhancement;
Appropriate action is taken following an appeal or complaint.
Criterion C1 – the role of academic and professional staff
An organisation granted powers to award degrees assures itself that it has appropriate numbers of staff to teach its students. Everyone involved in teaching or supporting student learning, and in the assessment of student work, is appropriately qualified, supported and developed to the level(s) and subject(s) of the qualifications being awarded.
Explanation
The capacity and competence of the staff who teach and who facilitate and assess learning are central to the value of the education offered to students. Organisations awarding their own qualifications have a crucial responsibility to ensure that every student has the chance to develop as an independent learner, and the opportunity to demonstrate the extent to which they have achieved the intended learning outcomes for the credit or qualification being sought.
Chances are maximised by effective teaching and the facilitation of learning undertaken by staff with academic, professional and vocational expertise in line with the organisation’s curriculum offer. This includes a responsibility for ensuring that staff maintain a professional understanding of current developments in research and scholarship in their subject and, where applicable, keep in touch with practice in their professions and for ensuring that structured opportunities for them to do so are both readily available and widely taken up. It also means that teaching for degree-level qualifications should reflect, in a careful, conscious and intellectually demanding manner, the latest developments in the subject of study. Organisations also have a responsibility for making certain that the assessment of their students is carried out in a professional, rigorous and consistent way.
Evidence requirement
To assist in demonstrating that criterion C1 is met, the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that all staff involved in teaching or supporting student learning, and in the assessment of student work have:
Relevant learning, teaching and assessment practices that are informed by reflection, evaluation of professional practice, and subject-specific and educational scholarship.
Academic and (where applicable) professional expertise.
Active engagement with the pedagogic development of their discipline knowledge.
Understanding of current research and advanced scholarship in their discipline and that such knowledge and understanding directly inform and enhance their teaching. Also active engagement with research and/or advanced scholarship to a level commensurate with the level and subject of the qualifications being offered.
Opportunities to engage in reflection and evaluation of their learning, teaching and assessment practice.
Development opportunities aimed at enabling them to enhance their practice and scholarship.
Opportunities to gain experience in curriculum development and assessment design and to engage with the activities of other higher education providers for example through becoming external examiners, validation panel members or external reviewers.
Expertise in providing feedback on assessment which is timely, constructive and developmental.
Experience of curriculum development and assessment design.
Engagement with the activities of providers of higher education in other organisations (through, for example, involvement as external examiners, validation panel members, or external reviewers).
In addition, the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
It has made a rigorous assessment of the skills/expertise required to teach all students and the appropriate staff/student ratios.
It has appropriate staff recruitment practices.
Higher education providers have in place, monitor and evaluate arrangements and resources which enable students to develop their academic, personal and professional potential.
Explanation
The teaching and learning infrastructure – all the facilities, digital resources and support activities that are provided to maximise students’ chances of developing their potential and of obtaining the qualification they are seeking – is a means to an end. Organisations that award their own qualifications are expected to have mechanisms in place designed to support and develop students beyond the arrangements for learning, teaching and assessment addressed in criterion B3. These include the specialist support services such as counselling, disability and careers advice and cover both the generic provision of services to a cohort of students and the targeted support for individual students. It is part of an organisation’s strategic approach which embodies the integration, coherence and internal cooperation between different areas of a provider, including for example links between professional services, academic departments and student representative bodies as well as with external organisations.
Evidence requirement
To assist in demonstrating that criterion D1 is met, the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
The organisation takes a comprehensive strategic and operational approach to determine and evaluate how it enables student development and achievement for its diverse body of students.
Students are advised about, and inducted into, their study programmes in an effective way and account is taken of different students’ choices and needs.
The effectiveness of student and staff advisory, support and counselling services is monitored and any resource needs arising are considered.
Its administrative support systems enable it to monitor student progression and performance accurately and provide timely, secure and accurate information to satisfy academic and non-academic management information needs.
The organisation provides opportunities for all students to develop skills that enable their academic, personal and professional progression, for example academic, employment and future career management skills.
The organisation provides opportunities for all students to develop skills to make effective use of the learning resources provided, including the safe and effective use of specialist facilities, and the use of digital and virtual environments.
The organisation’s approach is guided by a commitment to equity.
E: Evaluation of performance
Criterion E1 An organisation granted degree awarding powers takes effective action to assess its own performance, respond to identified weaknesses and develop further its strengths.
Explanation
An organisation that has powers to award its own qualifications must have in place the means of critically reviewing its own performance, in particular in relation to standards and student outcomes. It needs to know how it is doing in comparison with other similar organisations, and have in place robust mechanisms for disseminating good practice. It must also be able to identify limitations or deficiencies in its own activities and take timely and effective remedial action when this is called for.
Evidence requirement
To assist in demonstrating that Criterion E is met the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
Critical self-assessment is integral to the operation of its higher education provision and that action is taken in response to matters raised through internal or external monitoring and review.
Clear mechanisms exist for assigning and discharging action in relation to the scrutiny and monitoring of its academic provision.
Ideas and expertise from within and outside the organisation (for example on programme design and development, on teaching, and on student learning and assessment) are drawn into its arrangements for programme design, approval, delivery and review.
Underpinning criteria for research DAPs
Where a provider has applied for research DAPs and either already holds Taught Degree Awarding Powers (TDAPs), or is seeking TDAPs at the same time, the following criteria will apply in addition to those set out above for taught awards.
Criterion F – Academic staff
F1 The organisation’s supervision of its research students, and the teaching it undertakes at doctoral level, is underpinned by academic staff with high levels of knowledge, understanding and experience of current research and advanced scholarship in their subjects of study.
Explanation
The creation and interpretation of knowledge which extends a discipline, usually through original research, is a defining characteristic of the UK doctorate, and the award of research degrees places a particular and substantial responsibility on an awarding body. Accordingly, the organisation’s academic staff should command the respect and confidence of their academic peers across the UK and international higher education sector, and be considered credible to deliver research degree programmes. Organisations wishing to offer research degrees should have a strong underpinning culture in place that actively encourages and supports creative, high quality research and scholarship among its academic staff, and its doctoral and other research students. Such a culture typically involves engagement with a range of discipline-based, professional practitioner and research-active communities, and this ensures that research students should only be accepted into an environment that provides support for doing and learning about research, and where excellent research, recognised by the relevant subject community, is occurring.
Academic staff involved in the delivery of research degrees are expected to have knowledge, understanding and experience of research and advanced scholarship that go well beyond expectations for staff engaged in the delivery of taught degrees. Strength and depth in research supervision capacity, research performance in authoritative external peer reviews, and demonstrable involvement in research-related activities with other higher education providers or comparable organisations engaged in research, are all factors to be taken into account in any consideration of the merits of an application for research degree-awarding powers.
Evidence requirement
To assist in meeting criterion F1, the applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
Its policies and procedures relating to research, advanced scholarship, and research degree programmes are appropriate, effective and reflect sector best practice, and are understood and applied consistently, both by those involved in the delivery of research degrees and, where appropriate, by the students involved.
It has a strong and sustainable research culture, which directly informs and enhances the supervision and teaching of research degree students.
It has a critical mass of research staff and students, representing a viable and sustainable research community.
It actively engages in discipline-based and broader based communities of researchers and scholars external to the organisation, and takes steps to engage the public at large with the research it undertakes.
It has established productive research-relevant links, formal or informal, with other higher education and specialist research institutions through, for example, joint research activities.
It has a critical mass of research leaders, normally at professorial level, whose role is to support the development of research and an effective research culture.
Staff involved in the delivery of research degree programmes, in a teaching and/or supervisory capacity:
Are themselves active researchers who produce externally recognised outputs in research and advanced scholarship.
Are examiners of research degrees, appointed as internal examiners by the awarding institution or as external examiners elsewhere.
Command the respect and confidence of academic peers across the sector as reflected, for example, in Research Excellence Framework (REF) outcomes, other authoritative external reviews, awards of distinction, through research contracts and/or funding, as invited/keynote speakers at national and international research events and conferences, as members of national and international research committees or bodies.
Have current knowledge of developments within the higher education sector relating to research and research degrees.
Have access to a systematic and effective approach to staff development and appraisal that enables them to develop and enhance their knowledge of current research and advanced scholarship.
The applicant organisation will also be required to provide an analysis of, and supporting commentary relating to, the data it has used to satisfy itself that the staff involved with the delivery of its research degree programmes have met the metric requirements outlined below. Data should be provided for the three years immediately preceding the submission of an application for research degree awarding powers. Applicant organisations should be aware that numeric criteria contribute to a broader assessment of their capacity to assume the ‘particular and substantial responsibility’ (criterion F1, explanation above) placed on organisations holding research degree awarding powers and necessarily involves an evaluative dimension.
The applicant organisation will be required to provide evidence that:
A significant proportion (normally around a half as a minimum) of its academic staff are active and recognised contributors to at least one organisation such as a subject association, learned society or relevant professional body. Such contributions are expected to involve some form of public output or outcome, broadly defined, demonstrating the research-related impact of academic staff on their discipline or sphere of research activity at a regional, national or international level;
A significant proportion (normally around a third as a minimum) of its academic staff have recent (i.e. within the past three years) personal experience of research activity in other UK or international higher education or specialist research institutions by, for example, acting as external examiners for research degrees, serving as panel members for the validation or review of research degree programmes, or contributing to collaborative research projects with other organisations (other than as a doctoral student). An applicant organisation will be required to demonstrate both that such activity has taken place, and that in the case of collaborative research activity, the member of staff has made a personal contribution to the research and that a tangible output has been or is in the process of being achieved.
A significant proportion (normally around a third as a minimum) of its academic staff can demonstrate recent achievements (i.e. within the past three years) that are recognised by the wider academic community to be of national and/or international standing (e.g. as indicated by authoritative external peer reviews). It is expected that the evidence will largely relate to work undertaken within the applicant organisation rather than in other HEIs.
Criterion G – National guidance
G1 The organisation satisfies relevant national guidance relating to the award of research degrees.
Evidence requirement
To assist in meeting criterion G1, the applicant organisation will be required to demonstrate that it meets fully and will continue to meet, the expectations of:
The Qualifications Frameworks in relation to the levels of its research degree programmes.
Research degree management frameworks issued by relevant research councils, funding bodies and professional/statutory bodies, which might include Conditions of Research Council Training Grants issued by Research Councils UK and Statement of Expectations for Postgraduate Training issued by Research Councils UK and other training funders.
Criterion H – Minimum number of doctoral degree conferrals
H1 The applicant organisation has achieved more than 30 doctoral degree conferrals,27 awarded through partnerships with UK awarding bodies.
H2 In addition, the applicant organisation will need to demonstrate that:
The majority of conferred doctoral degrees have been achieved by students who are not also academic staff of the organisation.
Its completion rates meet sector norms.
[27] Includes professional doctorates.
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