The Office for Students (OfS) has awarded full degree awarding powers to the Dyson Institute. This follows completion of a successful probationary period, and means that the Institute will be able to award its own qualifications, without any restrictions.
The Dyson Institute is the first higher education provider to be awarded full degree awarding powers after the OfS introduced a new approach to degree awarding powers, enabling new providers to award their own degrees.
The Institute is considering offering a range of undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, all of which are designed to address engineering skills shortages.
The decision to award full degree awarding powers to the Dyson Institute follows an extensive and robust assessment, including monitoring the Institute’s progress during its probationary period. This included seeking advice on the quality of courses from an expert, assessment team. The assessment team considered a range of evidence and drew on information gathered during visits to the Institute.
Commenting, Jean Arnold, Deputy Director of Quality at the OfS, said:
'The Dyson Institute is the first higher education provider to complete our new process for authorising degree awarding powers, so this is an important milestone. Our approach is designed to give new higher education providers the opportunity to gain these powers more quickly, and today’s decision means that the Dyson Institute can operate without restrictions and can design new courses and expand its provision.
'The Institute has broken new ground and shown that new, high quality, higher education providers can meet the rigorous requirements needed to qualify for degree awarding powers. We congratulate it for this, and look forward to authorising degree awarding powers for other innovative providers offering high quality higher education.'
Notes
- Read the assessment report.
- The Dyson Institute is registered with the OfS under its legal name, Dyson Technical Training Limited.