The Education Act 1994 is an act passed by the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

under

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...

's government in 1994, which primarily established the Teacher Training Agency and allowed students to opt out of students' unions.

Part I

Part I relates to teacher training and includes the establishment of the

Teacher Training Agency A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. wh ...

Part II

Part II of the Education Act gave effect to students' freedom of association by mandating that students must be permitted to opt out of any

students' union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

without being unfairly disadvantaged; this provision replaced am earlier proposal that would have made membership voluntary (i.e. opt-in), which had been seen to have a significant impact on membership of students' unions in Australia and was expected to have a similar impact in the UK. This Part also places further restrictions on Students' Unions by requiring that affiliation to external organizations must be voted on at referendum if 5% of the membership requests a referendum and restricts the time a

sabbatical officer In the United Kingdom a sabbatical officer is a full-time officer elected by the members of a students' union (or similar body such as students' association, students' representative council or guild of students), commonly at a higher education e ...

can serve to two years. It also stipulates that a students' union must be governed democratically and must be accountable for its finances. There are various other clauses about the finances and external affiliations of students' unions. Section 22 of the Act requires that "the procedure for allocating resources to groups or clubs should be fair and should be set down in writing and freely accessible to all students". This has generated some controversy because of the way it can be interpreted. Some assert that it requires all university societies that draw on students' union funding to be open to membership by all students, whilst others assert that this does not explicitly prevent a society of a students' union from restricting its membership to those who share the aims and purposes of the society.

References

External links

Text of the 1994 Education Act from HMSO BBC news - Ban for exclusive Christian body
{{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1994 Students' unions in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Education Acts 1994 in education