Accreditation
The HEA accredits initial and continuing professional development programmes delivered by higher education providers (including private providers and HE delivered in FE Colleges). Accreditation provides external confirmation that institutional CPD provision is aligned with the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education (UK PSF).
On successful completion of an accredited programme or scheme, participating individuals are eligible to apply for professional recognition at the appropriate Academy fellowship category (See our Professional Recognition page for more details).
For a list of currently accredited provision please see here.
Accreditation Services (with effect from September 2012)
Why has the HEA made changes to the accreditation process?
What are the implications for institutions?
Information and Guidance Events
Summary of accreditation
Accreditation has been streamlined, to provide a more robust, fair and transparent system by:
- Having one accreditation process - the documentary submission accreditation panel;
- Introducing a limit of one accreditation request in any three year accreditation cycle (which may contain separate elements of provision);
- Introducing the requirement for all submissions to have institutional sign-off
Why has the HEA made changes to the accreditation process?
There are several reasons for recent changes, and these are outlined below:
- To make the accreditation process, and particularly the decision making, more transparent by separating developmental work from the summative judgement process;
- To streamline the accreditation process, so that accreditation requests can be dealt with more quickly than at present;
- To remove the requirement for all institutional teams to attend a developmental meeting;
- To provide focussed information and guidance for institutions in response to demand;
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To encourage institutions to develop integrated approaches to their CPD provision that align with the descriptors of UKPSF and that address all staff, regardless of their status and experience.
Background and Context
During the last academic year the HEA operated two routes to accreditation: the Accreditation Development meeting (ADM) route for those institutions seeking support and the Documentary Submission (DS) route for more established provision.
In the ADM route accreditors worked with institutional teams to provide guidance and feedback on draft documentation in order to help them prepare their formal submission for accreditation. Final accreditation decisions were taken by the accreditors involved in this formative process.
In the DS route, a panel of accreditors met to review formal and final submission documents from institutions and made final accreditation decisions against set criteria.
The DS accreditation panel is now the sole route to accreditation (WEF September 2012).
The HEA will hold monthly Accreditation Panels with a faster decision-making cycle (typically six-eight weeks from submission to decision). Institutional submission requirements are detailed in the guidance notes (see link on right side of this page).
In parallel with these panels, the HEA now runs free information and guidance events that explore the use of the UKPSF as a CPD framework, explain the requirements for successful accreditation, and help institutions prepare for the formal accreditation submission.
What are the implications for institutions?
Accreditation as a subscription benefit is limited to a single accreditation submission in any three year period. There is, within reason, no limit to the number of separate routes to recognition that a submission may contain but it must be made clear how each individual piece of provision fits within the wider institutional accreditation strategy and/or CPD framework. All accreditation requests will need institutional endorsement.
In this context it is important for an institution to consider the totality of its learning and teaching support provision and the current accreditation periods of individual elements. The Academy, through liaison between the Partnership Manager and the accreditation team, will work with institutional staff to help them integrate and align existing accredited elements into a coherent accreditation submission.
How do I make a submission?
Detailed guidance notes and accreditation documents are now available. Please read the Guidance Notes for full details of putting together your submission. The institutional submission should be accompanied by a Cover Sheet and a Self-Assessment Checklist. Links to the documentation can be found under 'Accreditation resources' on the right hand side of the page.
When can I make a submission?
Submissions may be made at any time. The Accreditation team will allocate submissions to a panel on a first-come, first-served basis. In order to allow the accreditation panel sufficient time to fully consider submissions, there will be a cut-off allocation date each month, after which the submission will be allocated in the following month. The allocation dates for 2012-2013 are:
28th February 2013
28th March 2013
26th April 2013
31st May 2013
28th June 2013
Information and Guidance Events
The Academy will be running Information and Guidance Events (IGEs) on the Accreditation process at various times throughout the year:
- 05 April 2013 - University of Gloucestershire
- 29 May 2013 - Higher Education Academy, York
- 29 July 2013 - Northumbria University
Attendance will be free for up to three individuals from each institution. For more information and to book onto this event, please visit our Events pages.
Access to accreditation is a benefit of HEA subscription. More information on subscription services can be found here.
In order to improve our Accreditation and Recognition services, revisions may be made to our web content from time to time, please check our website at regular intervals to ensure that you have the most up to date information available.
