MLA College Granted Degree-Awarding Powers to 2030

MLA College can now award its own taught degrees after a new Office for Students order came into force on 25 October 2026. The order gives the college permission to grant taught awards up to and including master’s level in three broad subject areas: engineering and technology, business and management, and geography, earth and environmental studies. That may sound like a niche legal update, but it matters more than it first appears. Degree-awarding powers decide who has the legal right to make the award. For students, that shapes who stands behind the qualification and who has been trusted by the regulator to keep academic standards in place.

Let’s translate the legal language. When a provider has degree-awarding powers, it can award its own degrees instead of depending on another university to validate them. In this case, the order covers taught awards only, so the permission is about classroom-based higher education up to master’s level, not every possible qualification. The statutory instrument on legislation.gov.uk is also tightly drawn. MLA College is not being given a free pass to award degrees in any subject it chooses. The permission sits within the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 and applies only to the subject groupings named in the order.

Those groupings are broad, but they are not vague. The schedule attached to the order includes engineering areas such as mechanical, civil, electrical and electronic, aerospace, chemical and maritime subjects. It also covers business studies, marketing, management, finance, accounting, tourism, transport and travel, as well as geography, environmental sciences and earth sciences. The schedule is there to show the kinds of subjects included inside the approved fields. So if you are already studying with MLA College, or thinking about applying, the practical question is not just whether the college can award degrees in the abstract. It is whether your taught course sits inside the subjects covered by this order.

The fixed term is just as important as the subject list. MLA College’s authorisation starts on 25 October 2026 and expires at the end of 24 October 2030. That means the permission is time-limited rather than permanent, and the position would need to be revisited through the proper process if the college wanted the arrangement to continue beyond that date. **What this means for students:** a fixed-term authorisation is not automatically a problem. It is a way of placing a clear time boundary around the power that has been granted. But it does mean you should read course information carefully. If your programme runs close to that 2030 end date, it is reasonable to ask who the awarding body will be and what arrangements apply after the current authorisation expires.

The order was made by the Office for Students, the regulator for higher education in England, using powers in section 42 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017. The instrument identifies the provider as MLA College Ltd, company number 09188277 and UKRPN 10049370. It also says the Office for Students asked the relevant body for advice on the quality of the higher education being provided and the standards being applied, and took that advice into account before making the order. That detail matters because degree-awarding powers are meant to rest on evidence about quality, not on marketing. The document was signed by Jean Arnold, Interim Director of Quality and Access at the Office for Students, on 20 October 2026, and it came into force on 25 October 2026.

There is one more small detail worth noticing. The explanatory note says no impact assessment was produced because the instrument was judged to have no impact on businesses, civil society organisations or the public sector. In other words, this is a targeted decision about one provider’s authority to award degrees, not a system-wide shake-up. For most readers, the useful takeaway is straightforward. MLA College now has legal permission to award its own taught degrees up to master’s level in approved subject areas until 24 October 2030. If you are comparing courses, check who awards the degree, whether your subject sits inside the authorised fields, and how the provider explains its arrangements for students studying across the life of this order.