UK and EU accreditation for schools outside Europe

Who this is for

This guide grew out of the questions schools abroad send us. One of the most common is whether we can make a school's own qualification "like ACCA". We get versions of it from Lagos, Hyderabad, Lahore, Nairobi and Dubai. Usually it is a private college with decent courses that wants a UK or European name on the certificate. Some already run an OTHM or Qualifi diploma and want their own programme recognised next to it.

Below are the three routes we actually use. If you are in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ghana or Kenya, or the UAE or Saudi Arabia, there is a separate guide for your country.

The three routes side by side

Sources: Ofqual, CCEA Regulation, the CQFW, the SCQF Partnership and MFHEA, linked below. Checked 28 October 2026.

Route 1: become an approved centre

It is where most schools begin, mainly for speed. Before saying yes, the awarding organisation will go through your policies, who teaches, and where (or on what platform) learners study. After approval you register each learner with them, do the teaching and marking yourself, and they sample a share of your marking before any certificate is printed. OTHM says it works through delivery centres around the world. ATHE says its recognition process for non-UK centres is the same as for UK ones, except the health check is usually done remotely. Ask for the fee list for your country, because international fees are not always the UK fees.

Two points get missed. You are teaching someone else's qualification, so their syllabus, their level and their name go on the certificate. Your materials and teaching sit around it. And Ofqual's protection only goes so far. In its own words, qualifications offered overseas are "protected by Ofqual regulation so long as they are also taken by learners in England." Check the Register before you choose a qualification to offer.

Route 2: put your own programme on a UK framework

If the programme is yours and you want a UK level on it, each of the four nations has a way. They work differently, and for a school that teaches only outside the UK they are not equally open.

Our reading, for a school whose learners are all outside the UK: a regulated qualification in England or Northern Ireland is usually out of reach, because there are no learners there for it to be regulated for. Scottish credit rating is the route most likely to work, then Wales, and both depend on the body saying yes. If you also teach in the UK, or plan to, the English route opens up. For scale, SCQF Level 11 is master's level, which is where ACCA's Strategic Professional exams are placed.

In every nation the programme has to be written in learning outcomes, with stated learning hours, formal assessment and quality assurance. Budget for renewal as well as the first approval. In Scotland a rating is usually reviewed every three to five years.

Route 3: accredit your own programme in Malta

Malta's framework is referenced to the European Qualifications Framework, so an MFHEA level means the same thing to an employer in Dublin or Munich as it does in Valletta. Setting up your own Maltese provider has got harder, though. Under MFHEA's Communication 04/2026, it has not taken licence applications from fully online institutions since 24 February 2026, and a newcomer needs its own premises in Malta, owned or leased, with staff working from there. For a school in Accra or Karachi with one programme, that rarely adds up. Going through an institute that already holds a licence usually does.

Through our partner institute, your programme goes to MFHEA under the institute's licence. If MFHEA says yes, your learners do most of the programme online and fly to Malta once or twice for classroom weeks. The certificate comes from the institute, with your school named on it as delivery partner. Its current licence covers further education, which is Levels 1 to 4. Levels 5 to 7 depend on MFHEA approving its extension to higher education, and MFHEA alone decides.

What a level gives you, and what it does not

A framework level is a statement about the standard of the learning. It tells an employer or a university what a holder should be able to do. It does not give your qualification the standing of a professional body that has been examining for decades. ACCA's Strategic Professional exams sit at the same formal level as a master's degree. But a hiring manager in Lagos trusts ACCA because so many people she has worked with hold it, not because of a framework table. Nobody can sell you that.

Two more things, because we are asked them a lot. A set of exam papers is not a programme. Every route here wants learning outcomes, study hours, assessment rules and quality assurance behind the exams. And a bachelor's, master's or doctorate title can only be awarded by a body with the power to award degrees, after a full programme of study. A short exam cannot carry one, through any route, and we turn down requests that ask for it.

Which route fits your school?

• You want a recognised UK certificate quickly and are happy to teach someone else's syllabus: become an approved centre.
• You own a programme or a professional qualification and want it on a UK framework under its own name: credit in Scotland or Wales, once the body confirms it will take it. If you also teach learners in the UK, a regulated qualification for England and Northern Ireland opens up too.
• Your learners are heading for jobs or study in Europe: the Malta route.
• Not ready for any of that yet? Get one course CPD certified. It is quicker and cheaper, but it gives you no framework level.

Plenty of schools end up with two: a UK diploma as the main offer and their own programme rated or accredited next to it. Check your centre agreement for exclusivity clauses before you do that.

Apollo Accreditation is a consultancy. It is not a regulator or an awarding organisation and does not award qualifications. Rules and fees change, so confirm them with the body named before you act on them.