Review of the Business
London School of Academics Limited (LSA) is a private company limited by share capital and incorporated in the United Kingdom. It does not have overseas operations.
LSA conducted teacher training for just over 14 years. The Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (DET) was funded by the Student Loan Company. The latter has been replaced: From September 2024, LSA is now offering a Higher National Certificate and a Higher National Diploma in Business. Both courses are funded by the Student Loan Company. The awarding body is Pearson.
Other courses that are offered at the LSA:
Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET)
Level 4 Certificate in Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice.
Level 3 Assessors Award
English and Math level 2 functional skills
Level 1 Health and Safety in the construction industry.
Statement of corporate governance Board of governance and academic board
Since its inception, LSA has been maintaining a sound reputation of academic excellence, quality, professional standards, and good management practices. This is maintained through a robust system of governance of its academic and management operations through the Directors, senior management, and academic team.
An additional Director was appointed in 2022: Soni Singh who shares the responsibilities of decisions and internal control along with Sheila Singh. However, in March 2025, Soni Singh stepped down as a Director. Currently Sheila Singh is the sole director of the London School of Academics.
A Non-Executive Director was also appointed in 2022: Robert Roberts who has the responsibility of inspecting quality assurance and the general running of the business. The above is still ongoing.
The governing body of LSA includes the directors that have the overall responsibility for the strategic planning and direction of all operations and management of the institute. It delegates management responsibilities to the senior management and the academic team.
The Director is also responsible for the statutory compliance of the college to ensure that it meets the laws and regulations of a company limited by shares, the regulations of its regulator and awarding bodies and the expectations of students, staff and shareholders.
The governance arrangement of the college aims to meet the expectations of the UK higher education sector, in terms of the core values and primary elements of governance.
Two new Board members have been appointed in June 2024: Chanda Singh (Software developer) and Aaron Tan (Business lecturer). The latter is still ongoing.
Statement of internal control
The Director ensures that LSA has an appropriate risk management framework in place to monitor and manage various risks affecting the sustainability of operations and being discussed in the board meetings.
The Director is responsible for implementing, making, and exercising key decisions regarding daily internal controls.
Statutory Auditors and the Board of Governance also review the internal controls and associated risks. Their recommendations are discussed with the Directors and the Board of Governance subsequently implemented to enhance internal controls.
Internal Control and Risk Management
The system of internal controls and risk management is structured to flow through the governance mechanism. The efficiency, effectiveness and standardisation of the academic and administrative operations are handled by the academic, administrative and the senior management team.
The academic staff follow a reporting system to ensure accountability of various academic departments and admissions through regular weekly meetings and recording whereas all administrative matters are under the control of the senior management and admin staff. All matters of internal controls are reported to the Director and the recommendations are fed back to the academic and admin staff and the senior management. This will ensure LSA's vision for the future and continuous efforts to enhance the quality of identifying, evaluating, and managing risk.
LSA has a history of robust financial management and controls, with management through its directors and senior management and with regular reporting back and approvals from the Director. The major focus of financial strategy of LSA is financial prudence and sustainability. Regular review of internal controls is made against risks identified to ensure a sound system of internal control is maintained.
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The Director is responsible for effective internal controls and adequate monitoring systems in place in the whole organisation to prevent and detect corruption, fraud, bribery, and other irregularities. It also reviews their effectiveness, covering business, operational, compliance, and financial risks.
The Director and the senior management ensure that all academic and administrative processes follow the quality standards and meet the targets. In particular, the Director investigate the processes of budgeting, resource allocations, accountability, and expenditure.
Value for Money
London School of Academics has the mission to “to create excellence within the Business industry and staff development, through quality and precision, targeting individuals who want to improve both their lives and the lives of others'”. The fees enable us to provide students with high quality education and a motivating environment.
Value for Money (VFM) at LSA is measured considering if the college obtains the maximum benefits from the goods and services it acquires or provides within the available resources. It also considers a mix of quality, cost, resource use, sustainability, fitness for purpose, and convenience to judge if they constitute good value when taken together.
Achieving VFM, LSA considers three E's:
ECONOMY - Doing less with fewer resources. i.e. making savings.
EFFICIENCY - Doing the same as before, but with fewer resources.
EFFECTIVENESS - Doing more than before with the same or fewer resources.
LSA uses internal and external data to assess its performance compared with historical data and the sector. The external data is collected through HESA while internal data analysis is prepared and discussed quarterly.
LSA is committed to continuing devising activities to:
Improve VFM for the students by enhancing the quality of teaching and welfare services to manage the post-COVID issues faced by students.
Set challenging targets and further improve the internal control processes to ensure that the VFM objectives are achieved.
A 3-year contract was signed (01/02/2024) to remain at current premises, it would be advisable to look for more cost-effective premises.
Free courses
LSA offers free Cyber training for all students.
Prevent training for all students.
Free IT support for all students.
Free English and Maths support for all students.
LSA also have an open door policy, and where direct help cannot be offered, students are signposted to other professionals.
How we set our fees
The fees for our main courses, which are mainly funded by students taking tuition fee loans from the Student Loans Company, have been set in accordance with our registration category for Office for Students.
Our registration category is Approved; therefore, we do not charge more than £6000. However, this due to change, from September 2025 the fee will increase to £6185.00.
The Level 4 Higher National Certificate and Level 5 Higher National Diploma in Business Management are courses that provide students with opportunities to enter the Business industry, creating managers, and entrepreneurs.
Our students come from a variety of educational backgrounds, some do not have degrees but do have the required vocational qualifications to study the courses, therefore ensuring that we charge no more than £6185 is important so that we do not disadvantage students who cannot afford university fees. Our fees are the same as most providers delivering the same courses.
What we spend the fees on
Student fees are spent on a range of things relating to the student experience, some of which include the following:
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Premises which provides a peaceful environment for study, access to open space study areas (street area and outdoor terrace), networking opportunities with a range of businesses, parking at a very low rate of £1.50 for a full day and full disabled access for free.
Premises which offer extended access hours for independent study, with study rooms equipped with computers.
Virtual Learning Environment which enables easy accessibility to learning resources and enables online submission of assignments reducing costs spent on printing. It enables remote access to important student information and learning resources.
Zoom which has enabled remote study and the recording of lectures.
Projector screens enable one to deliver using technology, this is key for those working in educational institutions who deliver using such resources.
PPE and cleaning products, this ensures the safety of all and that the study environment is clean.
Student engagement activities which promote networking and inclusiveness amongst all student cohorts and opportunities to meet public figures (MPs and Councilors)
Student engagement also regularly invites students to events, like a trip to the seaside, and care and share, the latter is where the college provides food for students.
Caring and sharing promotes equality and diversity along with interaction among students.
Lecturers and mentors equipped to deliver at a high standard.
Stocking of subject-based library books enables us to provide students with printed books for one week loan as well as a day loan. All books are subject based to ensure relevance.
Regulatory compliance, fee received pays for: Office for Students, OIA, HESA, ICO, ZOOM and VLE subscription fees.
An annual Graduation ceremony to celebrate the success of the graduates.
Principle risks and uncertainties
The Directors have identified the risks associated with the company as Covid-19, student retention, and risk identification management processes cap on student recruitment (120).
Risk identification management processes:
The process of risk identification and management is addressed through a framework of policies, procedures and internal controls. All policies are subject to the Director’s approval and on-going review by the management. Compliance with regulation, legal and ethical standards is a high priority for the college, and this is monitored by the Directors and the senior management.
Covid-19
The college continues to manage business continuity, financial sustainability, health and safety, and academic risk as the UK navigates through the Covid-19. Contingency plans have been produced to mitigate the effects, including various scenario planning, changes to study methods, key staff arrangements and internal controls ensuring that health and safety risks are reduced. The college continues to follow the Government and Public Health England advice and best practices to mitigate the risks.
Student retention
Face to face teaching is now 100% active, with online support for all learners. This academic year there was a high intake of learners with disabilities and measures were put in place for those who needed them. It is believed to be due to a lasting impact of Covid 19 (long Covid). But through shifting teaching online and proactively engaging with the students on zoom, the college was able to ensure that the students met their learning aims and retained its students.
Cap on the number of students by the awarding body Pearson
LSA has smoothly transitioned to Business courses: HNC and HND in Business management, from teacher training level 5 Diploma in Education and Training. As this was the first year of delivery the cap remains. The latter does not affect financial sustainability as there are adequate funds to cover all costs. In fact, the following year (2026) there will be an increase in revenue as there will be roughly 90 students returning to complete the HND in Business management, plus a plan to recruit roughly 90 further students to start the 2-year program.
I know that the forecast was for 240 students, however, due to students failing to provide the Level 2 English, there was a decline in recruitment, even though the students had businesses and went to school in the UK, a high majority of them did not collect their certificates or had simply mis-placed them. The other Major factor was that at the CEME campus there is another college Caspian school of Academics, offering the same course.
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To minimise the risks, early recruitment is necessary, so that gaps can be filled.
Please note that compliance is imperative to LSA. So, with that in mind we offer the English level 2 course to students who wish to come on board.
LSA are also looking to relocate but need to find the right premises which tick all boxes. For example. Free parking or at a low cost, disabled access, health and safety, secure premises, and making sure that there are ample catering resources available to cater for all students.