The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Name

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Legal name

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Website

https://qaa.ac.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is the UK non-profit quality body founded in 1997, headquartered in Gloucester, that assures and improves standards across UK higher education institutions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Quality Assurance

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611)

akta.pro primary industry

Online & Distance Education Quality Assurance Reviews (EDADAGAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Online/Distance Education Quality & Accreditation Bodies (EDADACAK)

Keywords

• Higher education quality assurance
• Academic standards review
• Institutional quality assessment
• Education accreditation services
• University quality review

Headquarters

HQ city

Gloucester

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Core offering

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is the independent quality body for higher education in the United Kingdom. It assures academic standards and works to improve the quality of UK higher education provision through reviews, assessments, and guidance for higher education providers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Higher Education Quality Assurance Services Independent quality assurance services that assure academic standards and improve the quality of UK higher education, provided to higher education institutions and providers.

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Broad incumbents

• Office for Students (OfS): The UK higher education regulator with overlapping oversight responsibilities. While broader in scope than QAA (incorporating funding, registration, and consumer protection), OfS directly intersects with QAA's quality assurance role in England and is the most consequential UK-side counterpart.
• AACSB International: Global accreditor for business schools, with a programme-level rather than whole-institution focus. Adjacent to QAA's mandate — both assess quality in higher education — but AACSB is international, commercially positioned, and discipline-specific.

Regional players

• Higher Education Authority (Ireland): Ireland's statutory authority overseeing higher-education policy, funding, and system performance. Adjacent to QAA's remit (system oversight vs. institutional review) and useful as a regional comparator on UK and Irish higher-education governance.

Direct peers

• WASC Senior College and University Commission: U.S. regional accreditor for western U.S. colleges and universities, performing institutional reviews and standards-setting equivalent to QAA's UK role. Comparable mission and operating model.
• European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA): Umbrella membership organisation for European higher-education quality assurance bodies, of which QAA is a member. Sets cross-jurisdictional standards and reviews national agencies — directly relevant as a peer in the same quality assurance category.
• AQU Catalunya: Catalonia's quality assurance agency for universities. Performs institutional and programme-level quality assurance for higher education, with a remit and operating model closely aligned to QAA's UK role.
• Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI): Ireland's national quality and qualifications agency for further and higher education. Nearest geographic peer to QAA with an overlapping mandate to assure quality across Irish higher education providers.
• Higher Learning Commission: U.S. regional accreditor performing institutional quality reviews for higher education providers. Directly comparable to QAA in function — independent non-governmental quality body assessing higher education institutions — though operating in the U.S. rather than the UK.
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education: Another U.S. regional higher-education accreditor with a near-identical institutional review mandate to QAA's, including standards-setting, periodic evaluation, and quality enhancement activities. A clear functional peer despite operating in a different regulatory jurisdiction.
• Australian Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA): Australia's independent higher-education quality and standards regulator. Performs comparable functions to QAA — provider registration, course accreditation, and standards monitoring — and represents a strong functional peer at a similar national scale.

Market position

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/QAAtweets

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education