​Education in England

The UK has a well-deserved reputation world-wide for providing high quality higher education. The existing 111 universities and 60 higher education colleges award a wide variety of degrees to suit most educational aspirations. Most institutions have degree awarding powers recognised by the UK authorities (UK and Scottish Parliaments, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies), others award the degrees of recognised institutions.

The growth of the Internet has led to an increased number of unofficial organisations claiming to offer UK qualifications granted by UK institutions. These institutions generally adopt a name which could be associated with a UK location and may have a postal address in the UK. This may give the impression that it is a recognised UK university or college. Also, they may charge ridiculously low fees. These organisations are not recognised in the UK and therefore, generally, the UK authorities have very little information, if any, about such institutions.