Higher education corporation

FOIA Schedule I includes:

• 53 - (1) The governing body of—

• (c) an institution conducted by a higher education corporation,

• (2) In sub-paragraph (1)—

• (a) “governing body” is to be interpreted in accordance with subsection (1) of section 90 of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 but without regard to subsection (2) of that section,
• (c) in paragraph (c), “higher education corporation” has the meaning given by section 90(1) of that Act, and

Section 90(1) defines a higher education corporation to be:

a body corporate established under section 121 or 122 of the Education Reform Act 1988, including those sections as applied by section 227(4) of that Act (application to Wales), or a body corporate which has become a higher education corporation by virtue of section 122A of that Act

Section 121 is about the initial establishment of HECs for LEA-run institutions. Section 122 is about creating new HECs from LEA-run institutions, and section 122A is about turning FECs into HECs. All of these are done by order.

Many HECs are also universities by virtue of section 77 of the 1992 Act, which states that any HEC with "university" in its name is a university unless "university" is immediately followed by "college" or "collegiate".

On WhatDoTheyKnow, HECs are filed under hei and university.

Section 121

Relevant orders include

• SI 1988/1799
• SI 1988/1800
• SI 1988/1801
• SI 1988/1888
• SI 1988/2283
• SI 1989/17
• SI 1989/2242
• SI 1989/2418

Section 122

• Incorporated by SI 1991/1976 (but probably mostly renamed or dissolved since then):
  • Cardiff Institute of Higher Education
  • Gwent College of Higher Education
  • The Polytechnic of Wales
  • Swansea Institute of Higher Education
  • The Welsh College of Music and Drama

Section 122A

• Norwich University College of the Arts (transferred, as Norwich School of Art and Design Further Education Corporation, by SI 1994/2017)
• Northern School of Contemporary Dance (transferred, as Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds Further Education Corporation, by SI 1994/2018)
• Writtle Agricultural College Higher Education Corporation (transferred, as Writtle Agricultural College Further Education Corporation, by SI 1994/2019)
• The Arts Institute at Bournemouth (transferred, as The Arts Institute at Bournemouth Further Education Corporation, by SI 2001/337)
• University College Birmingham (transferred, as Birmingham College of Food, Tourism and Creative Studies, by SI 2002/1136)
• Leeds College of Music (transferred by SI 2005/1792)