International threat to light-touch quality regime

Legions of international quality inspectors could soon be unleashed on UK universities, potentially undoing years of work to deliver a "light touch" quality assurance regime in England, the Quality Assurance Agency has warned.

Writing in today's THES , QAA chief executive Peter Williams warns that numerous international higher education accreditation and recognition schemes are being developed in response to the globalisation of higher education.

He warns that they could impose "unnecessary and worthless" additional burdens on universities.

An analysis by the QAA has found that there are at least seven major initiatives with the "overt or covert" intention of setting up new regulatory framework.