Responsibility for reasonable adjustments in partner college

Short answer

Both institutions can carry duties at the same time, but in relation to different things. The duty to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 is placed on each “responsible body” for the activities and provision that it actually controls. In a franchise or validation arrangement where a partner college teaches a course that a university awards, the college is normally the responsible body for the day to day teaching, learning environment and support it delivers, while the university is normally responsible for the parts it controls, such as the award, its own centrally set assessments, and any of its own facilities or services you use. Neither body can simply point at the other and disclaim responsibility for the matters within its own control.

The legal framework

The relevant law is Part 6 of the Equality Act 2010, which covers education. Section 91 prohibits discrimination by the “responsible body” of a further or higher education institution against its students, and expressly provides that the duty to make reasonable adjustments applies to that responsible body. For a university or higher education corporation the responsible body is its governing body; for a further education college it is the college’s governing body or corporation.

The reasonable adjustments duty is expanded by Schedule 13. It requires the responsible body to take reasonable steps to avoid putting a disabled student at a substantial disadvantage, in relation to matters such as admissions arrangements, the way education is provided, and access to any benefit, facility or service. Importantly, this duty is anticipatory. It is not only triggered when you ask; the body must think ahead about disabled students generally, including provision of auxiliary aids and, where relevant, accessible information.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission Technical Guidance on Further and Higher Education is the authoritative practical guidance on how these duties operate and is the source regulators and the courts treat as the leading interpretation.

How this maps onto a partner college and awarding university

The key legal idea is that each responsible body owes the duty in respect of what it provides or controls, not in respect of everything connected to your studies.

The partner college is a further or higher education institution in its own right and, as the body actually teaching you, will normally be the responsible body for the teaching, timetabling, physical premises and facilities it provides, learning support, in class adjustments, and locally set or locally administered assessments. If the problem concerns how teaching is delivered, access to the college’s buildings, equipment or library, or the support arranged around your day to day learning, the college is the natural duty holder.

The awarding university is a responsible body for the matters it retains control over. Depending on how the partnership is structured, that can include the design and academic regulations of the award, any centrally set examinations or assessment criteria, examination and mitigating circumstances processes it runs, and any of the university’s own services or facilities you are entitled to use. Where an adjustment concerns the assessment regulations, the marking scheme, or exam conditions set by the university, the university’s ability to authorise or refuse the adjustment makes it the relevant body.

In practice the boundary depends entirely on the partnership agreement between the college and the university and on who genuinely controls the particular thing you need adjusted. This is the single most important missing fact. It is common for the written agreement to allocate responsibility for disability support and reasonable adjustments explicitly, and for the university to retain ultimate responsibility for the academic standards and quality of the award while delegating delivery and student support to the college.

Why you should not accept being passed between them

A frequent problem in franchised and validated provision is each body telling the student that the other is responsible. Legally that does not work where the matter falls within a body’s own control, because the duty is imposed directly on each responsible body and cannot be contracted away to the disadvantage of the student. A contract between the college and university can allocate cost and administrative responsibility between them, but it cannot remove the statutory duty each of them owes you for the provision it actually controls. If an adjustment needs both of them to act, both are expected to co operate to deliver it rather than to leave a gap.

Practical next steps

1. Identify precisely what adjustment you need and which part of your experience it affects, for example teaching delivery, campus access, coursework, or a formal examination. This tells you which body most likely controls it.

2. Ask both the college and the university, in writing, for a copy of or a clear statement of how their partnership agreement allocates responsibility for disability support and reasonable adjustments, and who administers assessments and mitigating circumstances. Keep this correspondence.

3. Register with the disability or student support service at the body that delivers your teaching, which is usually the college, and ask for a support plan or learning agreement setting out agreed adjustments. Ask expressly whether the university needs to approve any assessment related adjustment, and request that they arrange that between themselves.

4. If you are put at a substantial disadvantage and adjustments are refused or delayed, put a clear written request and then a formal complaint to the relevant body, framing it as a request for reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 and asking for a decision with reasons. Direct assessment and award issues to the university and delivery issues to the college, and send it to both if responsibility is unclear.

5. If the internal complaint does not resolve matters, and depending on which body is treated as your provider, you can usually escalate to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education once you have a Completion of Procedures letter. Check which institution’s complaints scheme and OIA membership covers your course, because this again turns on the partnership structure.

6. Enforcement of the Equality Act duty itself is ultimately through a claim in the County Court for education discrimination, generally within six months of the act complained of. That is a last resort after internal and ombudsman routes, and the time limit matters, so note the date of any refusal.

What would change the answer

The allocation of responsibility depends on the specific partnership model. A pure validation arrangement, where the college is an independent provider and the university only validates the award, tends to leave most student facing duties with the college. A franchise arrangement, where the university franchises delivery of its own programme to the college, may keep more responsibility with the university, especially for assessment. A collaborative or embedded arrangement may split responsibilities in detailed ways. Whether the specific adjustment relates to teaching or to the award, and what the written agreement says, are the facts that decide who must act.