Academy of Live Technology Gains Degree-Awarding Powers

When you first read the new Order on legislation.gov.uk, the wording is full of legal references. But the main point is quite simple. Academy of Live Technology Ltd has been given permission to award certain taught degrees in England in its own name. The Order was made by the Office for Students on 27 May 2026 and takes effect on 1 July 2026. From then, the provider can grant taught awards up to and including master’s level, but only within the subjects named in the legal text.

That is a bigger step than it may sound. Not every higher education provider can automatically issue its own degrees. Some teach students on courses whose final award is formally made by another university. Degree-awarding powers mean the provider itself becomes the body that grants the qualification. It also helps to notice the limits. This Order covers taught awards, not every possible higher education award. In everyday English, that means the permission is focused on teaching-based degrees up to master’s level, rather than opening the door to research doctorates or every kind of qualification a provider might one day want to offer.

The subject list matters a great deal. The Office for Students Order names engineering and technology, computing, business and management, media, journalism and communications, and design, alongside creative and performing arts. If you are a prospective student, this is the kind of detail worth slowing down for. The new power is not a blanket pass for every course. It applies to those subject areas named in the law, so students should still check exactly how their specific course is described and whether it falls within that approved group.

There is also a time limit built into the decision. The authorisation begins on 1 July 2026 and expires at the end of 30 June 2030. So this is not written as a permanent power in the Order we have here; it is a fixed-term approval. Another line matters for students already on course or about to enrol. The provider may only grant these awards to people who are enrolled with Academy of Live Technology Ltd when they complete the course of study. In other words, the power is tied both to the institution and to students actively studying there at the point their award is made.

The legal background tells us something useful about how higher education is regulated in England. The Order says the Office for Students, England’s higher education regulator, used its powers under the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 and, before making the Order, requested advice from the relevant body on the quality of and standards applied to the provider’s higher education. That may sound technical, but the principle is important. Degree-awarding powers are supposed to follow a formal check on standards, not simply a branding decision by a college or specialist provider. The signature on the Order, from Jean Arnold as Interim Director of Quality and Access, shows that this sits inside a recognised regulatory process.

So what changes in practice? If you start or finish one of the covered taught courses after 1 July 2026, and the course sits within the approved subject areas, Academy of Live Technology Ltd can award the degree itself. For many students, that changes the name of the awarding body attached to the qualification, and that is not a small detail. What does not change is the need to read course information carefully. Students still need to ask who awards the degree, whether the course is covered by this fixed-term authorisation, and what level the award reaches. A legal order like this gives the provider a power, but students still need clear course-by-course information to understand how that power applies to them.

The explanatory note at the end says no impact assessment was produced because the instrument has no impact on businesses, civil society organisations, or the public sector. That can look strange at first, because the decision clearly matters to students and to the provider. But in this context, the note is talking about formal regulatory impact in a narrow policy sense, not whether real people will notice the change. For readers, this is a good reminder of why public documents matter. A short statutory instrument can tell you who is allowed to award recognised degrees, in which subjects, for how long, and under what conditions. Once we translate the legal language into everyday English, the story becomes much clearer: from July 2026, Academy of Live Technology Ltd has a time-limited right to award its own taught degrees up to master’s level in named subject areas.