It received an unsatisfactory grade 1 out of a maximum of 4 for learning resources in media studies in 1996

It received an unsatisfactory grade 1 out of a maximum of 4 for learning resources in media studies in 1996. On reinspection the following year it was found to be performing quite satisfactorily. It remains to be seen whether Bolton will continue to be kept out of the big league.Observers point to the irony of Bolton's being denied university status when some fully-fledged universities would also fall foul of the new rules One is the University of East Anglia. If it had applied to become a university under the new edict, it would have been found wanting because it received three 2s in a teaching quality assessment of sociology four years ago. Similarly, the QAA would have taken a dim view of Leeds University which scored a 1 in communication and media studies. (Leeds performed satisfactorily in a reinspection a year later.)New universities which would have been disqualified are Central Lancashire, East London, Hertfordshire, De Montfort and Thames Valley.

All received three grade 2s in teaching quality assessments; East London received three grade 2s in two subjects - electrical and electronic engineering, and communication and media studies.The QAA's rationale for the proposed new rules is that the previous ones were too broad and too like motherhood and apple pie. "Our overriding concern is that it was not clear what universities and colleges were being expected to demonstrate when they applied for university status or degree awarding powers," says Chris Haslam, QAA assistant director. "We wanted to create greater clarity."The Agency is also proposing a much more detailed scrutiny of institutions. In place of the current situation where a group of half a dozen vice-chancellors and deputies drop in to a university or college for a day, the QAA envisages the inspectors dipping in and out of the institution for up to a year, checking on validation procedures, faculty and exam board meetings.Some academics are behind this tough approach.

One is Alan Smithers, Sydney Jones Professor of Education at Liverpool University, who believes that degree-awarding powers should be restricted and only passed on to other institutions after a long period of tutelage in the same way as polytechnics gained that right through a long period of working with CNAA."The Government and the QAA are right to be cautious," he says "For good research you need a critical mass of talent Higher education is also largely funded by public money We should not spread that too thinly. University status and degree-awarding powers should not be handed out like Green Shield stamps."e-mail: lucy scribbl.demon.co.uk. The UK is risking its pounds 2bn overseas student market and its reputation by making it difficult for foreign students to get visas and enter the country, according to a survey to be published shortly by the United Kingdom Council for Overseas Student Affairs (UKCOSA). Education institutions that spend money marketing courses abroad say that we are losing potential students to Canada, Australia and the USA, where immigration practices seem less arbitrary. Even though politicians have been aware of the value of the overseas student market for some time, the feeling is that we're missing a trick when it comes to customer-friendly immigration practices.