UK higher education institutions are subject to a rigorous quality assurance and enhancement regime, including external evaluation by the independent Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for Higher Education, which means that students can be sure UK degree programmes are of a very high standard and are respected as such internationally.

 

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) is not part of central Government, but reports to Parliament through the Department for Education (DfE). It is the independent regulator of higher education in England.

 

UK universities and research institutions have produced 107 Nobel Prize winners, including Sir Alexander Fleming for the discovery of penicillin and Francis Crick for the discovery of the ‘double helix’ structure of DNA. In 2013, University of Edinburgh professor Peter Higgs received the Nobel Prize for Physics, and the three Chemistry prize winners – Michael Levitt, Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel – also spent part of their early careers in the UK.