Universities in the United Kingdom have generally been instituted by royal charter, papal bull, Act of Parliament, or an instrument of government under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 or the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. Degree awarding powers and the 'university' title are protected by law,[1] although the precise arrangements for gaining these vary between the constituent countries of the United Kingdom.
Institutions that hold degree awarding powers are termed recognised bodies, this list includes all universities, university colleges and colleges of the University of London, some higher education colleges, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Degree courses may also be provided at listed bodies, leading to degrees validated by a recognised body. Undergraduate applications to almost all UK universities are managed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
While legally, 'university' refers to an institution that has been granted the right to use the title, in common usage it now normally includes colleges of the University of London, including in official documents such as the Dearing Report.[2][3]
The representative bodies for higher education providers in the United Kingdom are Universities UK, GuildHE and Independent Higher Education. The responsible minister within the Department for Education is the Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education, currently Robert Halfon.
- ^ Aftab Ali (4 August 2016). "More than 30 fake UK universities shut down by Government in past year". The Independent.
- ^ Rebecca Smithers; Donald MacLeod (10 December 2005). "College vote brings break-up of university a step nearer". The Guardian.
Over the past 10 years the university has become an increasingly loose federation of independent institutions that are universities in their own right and receive their grants directly from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, although they still hand out degrees on behalf of the central university.
- ^ Lord Dearing (1997). Higher Education in the learning society – Main Report. HMSO. p. 41. Archived from the original on 11 February 2015.
Today there are 176 higher education institutions in the UK of which 115 are titled universities (which include the various constituent parts of both the University of London and the University of Wales).