Education Act 1994
Scotland (Part II and Schedule 2)
Northern Ireland (Schedule 2)
1 April 1995 (ss. 22(4),22(5) and 22(6))
Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Act 1996
Audit Commission Act 1998
School Standards and Framework Act 1998
Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
Education and Inspections Act 2006
Education and Skills Act 2008
Education Act 2011
Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act 2013
Higher Education and Research Act 2017
The Education Act 1994 (c. 30) is an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under John Major'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.[1]
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 without being unfairly disadvantaged; this provision replaced an 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.[2] 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 can serve to two years. It also stipulates that a students' union must be governed democratically and must be accountable for its finances.[3]
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