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The Quality Assurance Agency has highlighted how many private colleges have not passed its checks after business secretary Vince Cable questioned standards at some providers.

Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Glasgow on 7 October, Mr Cable said he had concerns about the value of the ¡°cheap and cheerful courses¡± that had received public funding since 2012.

While many of the private providers that gained access to tuition fee loans were ¡°very good, outstanding, innovation institutions¡±, there was ¡°a lot of dross¡± that had received public funds, he said.

In response to Mr Cable¡¯s comments, Stephen Jackson, director of quality assurance at the QAA, pointed to a number of private colleges that had not passed the QAA¡¯s review ¨C a check that is required if institutions want to recruit overseas students or receive public funding.

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¡°Since beginning this work, 78 private colleges that initially applied for QAA review were rejected or withdrew,¡± said Dr Jackson.

¡°Forty-six of the private colleges that did make it to review failed to achieve positive judgements on standards, quality or information,¡± he added.

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But Dr Jackson also said that he wanted to ¡°echo the secretary of state¡¯s views in that we have found many private colleges to be delivering a quality ÖйúAƬ experience¡±.

The total bill for public-backed student support at private providers is projected to soar to nearly ?1 billion this year, according to government figures, after the coalition encouraged private colleges to play a greater role in the provision of ÖйúAƬ.

However, the business secretary said the benefits from increased private provision were ¡°ambiguous¡±.

Mr Cable told the meeting, which was co-hosted by the Social Market Foundation thinktank and the Sutton Trust, that ¡°the aspect of [the expansion of student numbers] that worries me¡­is that what we have done is opened the door to private sector alternative providers, including for-profit companies¡±.

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Asked why he had allowed his powers to grant for-profit colleges that were in his own words ¡°dross¡± access to public funding, Mr Cable replied: ¡°I brought in fairly draconian controls about a year ago when we discovered that there was abuse in the sector.

¡°The reason why we can¡¯t just say ¡®this is a nuisance and it costs money, let¡¯s close the whole lot down¡¯ ¨C there is a legal reason and there are legitimate institutions. As the law stands at present, their students can gain access to student grants and loans.¡±

jack.grove@tesglobal.com