Licensed Partnership: State,Region and Institution in the Regulation of Access Education in England 1987–1992

The paper discusses the evolution and impact of a policy initiative intended to recognise and regulate a new entry route into British higher education: namely, that associated with access courses aimed primarily at adults and provided mainly by colleges of further education. The framework of quality assurance created to achieve this goal is examined from two vantage points. The first comes from within the central body established by the national government to develop and implement the scheme across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The second is that of one of the agencies in England licensed to recognise access courses at a regional and local level. As an early expression of a shift in government policy in the direction of a mass system of higher education, the framework represented on the one hand an exercise in legitimation and, on the other, an element in a larger process of change in post-secondary education. However, the ability of the initiative to shape priorities on the ground, or to embrace other transformations in and around access education, was always limited.