On Monday 8 June Legal Week reported that the parent company of top UK law school BPP had accepted a £303.5m takeover offer from US education provider Apollo. The move will be closely watched by the legal profession as it effectively means that a US company has bought degree-awarding powers in the UK (BPP is the only private company in the UK to hold such powers). The College of Law, the largest law school in Britain, also has degree-awarding powers, but it is a charity.
I received this statement from the Quality Assurance Agency – the body responsible for granting degree-awarding powers: “BPP College of Professional Studies has taught degree-awarding powers, which cannot be transferred to another organisation. The Privy Council granted BPP the powers to award taught degrees for six years with effect from 1 September 2007. A change of ownership may not, in itself, affect the entitlement to award degrees, provided BPP continues to operate as the entity which has been granted degree-awarding powers, and within the terms of the criteria relating to those powers.” (BPP College is not transferring ownership to another organisation, but will continue to be run as a subsidiary of BPP Holdings.)
