Privately-funded colleges will be required to undergo a 4-year assessment cycle. All those who applied to a designated educational oversight body by the September 2011 deadline (or by 28 May 2012 for colleges in Scotland) will receive an initial full assessment by the end of 2012, beginning their 4-year cycle. These sponsors will next be required to undergo a full assessment in 2016 and every fourth year thereafter (unless there is a material change in circumstances - see below).
Interim health checks will be given to those educational oversight bodies together with a full assessment ever 4 years. These checks will consists of a light-touch, shortened version of the whole assessment process, introduced and complied by the educational oversight bodies. The reason is to ensure educational standards and quality maintained during the 4 year cycle. The excellent news is that the fees for educational health checks will be set by the educational oversight bodies to recover costs. In addition to this the educational oversight bodies will be allowed to decide the date of any health check visits. These visits may be carried out without notice, a report will be made available of every health check on the sponsor's website.
All privately-funded colleges assessed in 2012 will be required to undergo an initial health check in 2013 to ensure that standards remain on track. Further health checks will take place annually but may be made on a 2-year cycle if the relevant oversight body judges the sponsor meets the highest educational standards. This means that in this first 4-year cycle, sponsors deemed to be performing well in 2013 will not undergo a further health check until 2015.
If the privately-funded sponsor no longer meets acceptable standards they will fail the health check. Their confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) allocation will be frozen and, they will be required to submit within 30 days an action plan to remedy deficiencies. During this time, the sponsor will be unable to sponsor any new international students but they can continue to sponsor students who are already studying with them. If any existing students need to extend their leave in order to complete their current course, the sponsor can apply for a CAS to assign to them using the sponsorship management system.
The sponsor will then be given the option of applying for a full assessment within a short period of time (maximum 6 months), which will re-start their 4-year assessment cycle. Those who pass the full assessment will have their CAS allocation reassigned. Those who fail - or choose not to apply - will be made legacy sponsors. The meaning of 'legacy sponsor' is set out in the Tier 4 sponsor guidance.
Discretion over carrying out full assessment and/or health checks at any given time will lie with the educational oversight bodies should the body feel that the sponsor requires it.will retain the discretion to require a full assessment and/or health check at any time if they consider the circumstances warrant it.
Other changes might be considered as part of the next scheduled health check. These might include significant increases in premises, a change of proprietor and major changes in teaching staff and accommodation arrangements for students.
In the event of non reporting of such change of circumstances may be considered as a breach of the sponsor license from the BIA.
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