The Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998
c 30
was enacted by the

United Kingdom Parliament 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 supremacy ...

on 16 July 1998. It enabled universities to charge

tuition fees Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spen ...

, and established statutory General Teaching Councils (GTC's) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the modification the remit of the

General Teaching Council for Scotland The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Choitcheann Teagaisg na h-Alba'') is a fee based registered charity and the world's first independent self-regulating body for teaching. The current Chief Executive and ...

. The act also made provision for the new system of

student loans A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest r ...

that were introduced, and introduces paid leave from work for training towards a qualification. The passing of this act repealed the Education (Student Loans) Act 1998, and the sections relating to student finance in the Education Act 1996. The student loans system was later updated in the

Higher Education Act 2004 The Higher Education Act 2004 (c 8) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that introduced several changes to the higher education system in the United Kingdom, the most important and controversial being a major change to the fundi ...

. The Teaching and Higher Education Act is divided into four parts, which can be summarised as follows:

Part one

Chapter One

*General Teaching Councils will be established in England, Wales and Northern Ireland *Duty of GTC Scotland towards disabled persons and the representation of

Special needs In clinical diagnostic and functional development, special needs (or additional needs) refers to individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. Guidelines for clinical diagnosis are given in ...

teachers *Teachers at maintained schools in the UK are required to register with their GTC *Teachers must abide by the GTC for England Code of Conduct and the GTC for Wales Code of Conduct

Chapter Two

*Headteachers in schools in England and Wales (with some exceptions) must have a professional headship qualification. *This chapter also makes provision for the inspection of teacher training institutions.

Chapter Three

*All Newly Qualified Teachers in the England and Wales are required to pass an

induction period An induction period in chemical kinetics is an initial slow stage of a chemical reaction; after the induction period, the reaction accelerates. Ignoring induction periods can lead to runaway reactions. In some catalytic reactions, a pre-catalyst n ...

of three school terms (one school year). At the end of this period the headteacher is required to make a recommendation to the appropriate body as to whether the new teacher has achieved the standards set by the GTC.

Part two

*This section outlines, in very broad terms, the system of student loans in the UK. A non-governmental body was set up in 1989 (see

Student Loans Company The Student Loans Company (SLC) is an executive non-departmental public body company in the United Kingdom that provides student loans. It is owned by the UK Government's Department for Education (85%), the Scottish Government (5%), the Welsh ...

) to administer the awarding and recovery of these loans. The Student Loans Company is not directly mentioned in this section however; the statute only calls for the Secretary of State to administer these loans.

Part Three

*An insert to the

Employment Rights Act 1996 The Employment Rights Act 1996 (c. 18) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament passed by the Conservative government to codify existing law on individual rights in UK labour law. History Previous statutes, dating from the Contracts of Employment ...

which states that any employee who is 16 or 17, and not in full-time education, and 'has not attained such standard of achievement as is prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State', is entitled to take time off their working hours to undertake training for a qualification. * 'An employee who is permitted to take time off...is entitled to be paid remuneration by his employer for the time taken off at the appropriate hourly rate'

Part Four

*Miscellaneous additions, including the re-affirmation that the only educational services in the UK allowed to use the title 'University' are those that are authorised by act of parliament or by

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, or have been approved by the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

External links

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(detailing the right to paid leave for training) {{DEFAULTSORT:Teaching And Higher Education Act 1998 Education finance in the United Kingdom Higher education in the United Kingdom Teaching in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1998 United Kingdom Education Acts 1998 in education