Our Partnerships

The Centre for Educational Partnerships manages Bath Spa University’s educational partnerships (formerly known as collaborative provision), including franchised, validated, transnational education (TNE) and other types of academic collaboration, such as university centres.

All partnerships are developed, approved and managed according to Bath Spa University’s Educational Partnerships Strategy, which gained approval from the Board of Governors in September 2023 and developed in line with the University’s Strategy 2030. An implementation plan has been developed to support the Strategy objectives and has received support from the University’s senior leadership and Board of Governors. The Centre is led by the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Partnership Strategy), supported by the Head of Educational Partnerships and reporting directly to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost.

Bath Spa University currently has sixteen educational partnerships, including thirteen in the UK and three overseas. Our UK partners are spread across the country, with locations in Bath, Bristol, London, Birmingham, Brighton, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester, Northampton, Weston-super-Mare and Edinburgh. We have a small number of TNE partners, including franchised partnerships in Ras al Khaimah (UAE) and Malta and a dual award programme in Hunan, China. The Centre for Educational Partnerships is actively exploring new partnerships both in the UK and overseas, which are carefully considered in line with our Educational Partnerships Strategy and Partnership Approval Procedure.

While there are a wide range of programme delivery areas across most of the University’s schools of study, the majority of programmes sit within our Bath Business School. Key undergraduate programmes include BA (Hons) Business and Management and specialist strands, such as marketing, accounting and law, with a very high level of interest in our postgraduate programmes, namely MBA Leadership, MA Business and Management and MA Marketing and Brand Management. Our School of Design is another key area, particularly undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Creative Computing, Computing and Cyber Security. We also deliver a number of programmes on both a franchised and validated basis in music and performing arts, art and design, film and media, psychology and health and social care management.

Though managed directly by the School of Education, the Centre for Educational Partnerships provides contractual support to programmes in education, including Initial Teacher Training (ITT) and School Centred Initial Teach Training (SCITT). The dual award partnership in early years’ education with HUHST in Hunan, China is led by the School of Education with support from Go Global and the Centre for Educational Partnerships.

While the majority of the University’s educational partnerships are long-standing, ranging from 6 to 25+ years, our three biggest partners undertook their first intakes in 2021/22 and their first full academic year of operation was 2022/3. The total number of partnership students in 2022/3 across all types was c. 7,683, with the majority of these on franchised programmes with UK partners (7,380). Academic year 2023/4 saw a significant increase in total number of partner students enrolled, including both new and returning students: 15,857.