About AIHEP

The Association of Independent Higher Education Providers (AIHEP) was launched on a formal basis on 19th July, 2004 in the House of Lords, under the Chairmanship of Lord John Tomlinson. Since then AIHEP has been widely recognised as being the representative body for the quality private Higher Education sector.

There is a clear need for AIHEP in today’s ever-changing higher education sector, as high quality private providers find themselves increasingly under attack from all sides. AIHEP retains stringent standards of entry for prospective members, all of whom have been validated by UK universities, comply with UKBA regulations and are a part of the quality audit process of the UK university framework. Member organisations follow a strict code of conduct that emphasises the Association's commitment to quality and transparency.

The principal objectives of AIHEP are as follows:

• Providing a representative body for the UK's high quality independent HE providers
• Lobbying to ensure the interests of the independent HE sector are upheld and a level playing field is created for all providers equally
• Ensuring clear standards are maintained for course delivery and student support
• Ensuring compliance with UK government regulations, particularly immigration (members are lead participants in the current Home Office pilot tracking system)
• Growing effective public-private partnerships for mutual benefit.

AIHEP News:

AIHEP reacts with dismay at plans to ‘destroy’ private Higher Education sector

The Association of Independent Higher Education Providers (AIHEP) concurs with the findings in the recently-published report by CentreForum and has been dismayed that the Coalition Government's Tier 4 Visa policy is 'destroying' the private higher-education sector in the UK.

An AIHEP spokesperson confirmed that the Association was seeking urgent meetings with political leaders in an effort to bring sanity to a policy that seemed likely to destroy one of the jewels in the crown of higher-education in the UK and to deprive the Exchequer of several billions of revenue from overseas students.

Lord John Tomlinson, Chairman of AIHEP, had this to say:

“AIHEP was formed over 7 years ago to encourage the government to ensure the highest standards of probity among private sector higher education providers. Whilst those institutions who have not met these standards and achieved Highly Trusted Sponsorship (HTS) status have been closed, those high quality colleges who remain must be treated on the basis of a level playing field with our public universities.”

“It is unacceptable that a government committed to a successful private sector should manifest such prejudice against it in higher education.”