Bloomsbury Institute

Bloomsbury Institute is a for-profit higher education provider in central London offering undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in business management, accountancy, and law, validated by the University of Northampton.[1] The institute was founded in 2002 as the London School of Business and Management and adopted its current name in 2018.[1]

Bloomsbury Institute graduation, Senate House, Nov. 2019.

In July 2019, in a decision later overturned by the courts, the Bloomsbury Institute became the first institution to be refused permission by the Office for Students (OfS) to be included on the register of providers. The Office for Students claimed Bloomsbury did not meet the requirements for quality (specifically the continuation rate from first to second year and the rate of progression to graduate employment) or for management and governance (specifically the student outcome data and "a lack of credibility in its student and financial forecasts"). Following an initial judicial review, the OfS's decision was ruled lawful in March 2020,[2] but in August 2020 the Court of Appeal overturned the initial decision and ordered the Office for Students to reconsider Bloomsbury's application for registration.[3]

In 2019 Bloomsbury Institute partnered with Unlock to join the 'Ban the Box' campaign, becoming the first higher education provider in the UK to no longer ask anyone wishing to study or work at the institute to disclose past criminal convictions.[4][5]

Prior to 2016, Bloomsbury Institute concentrated an delivering HND programmes, awarded by Pearson Education, after which it shifted to primarily offering degrees validated by the University of Northampton. The last recruitment onto HND courses was in September 2015 and the first recruitment onto the new BA courses was in January 2016.[6]

Bloomsbury Institute is regularly reviewed by the Quality Assurance Agency. The last full review, in October 2015, noted that there had been a change of validator for degree programmes from the University of South Wales and Cardiff Metropolitan University to the University of Northampton. The review found that the institute met UK expectations for the maintenance of academics standards, for the quality of student learning opportunities and for the quality of information about learning opportunities, and commended the institute for its enhancement of student learning opportunities.[7] A monitoring visit in 2016 find that all recommendations of the 2015 report had been implemented in full. It also noted that the new admissions policy in place from February 2016 was "underpinned by a commitment to fair access", and that 65% of students were from black and ethnic minorities background and 20% declared a disability.[6]