Helping educational providers deliver a better quality of service is the aim behind the world’s first international standard for the sector – BS ISO 21001.

From pre-school to university, to vocational training and coaching, the world of learning is constantly evolving. As the trend to move away from the traditional customer-supplier relationship towards a collaborative partnership grows, so, too, do learners’ expectations. 

Learning providers now need to adapt to these new ways of working, while at the same time providing a high-quality level of service.

This standard is intended to meet this challenge by defining the requirements of a management system that will help education providers better meet the needs and expectations of their learners and other beneficiaries, and demonstrate greater credibility and impact.

What is standard BS ISO 21001?

BS ISO 21001 Management systems for educational organizations is primarily a standard of the management process for educational organizations.

Aligned to the pan-sector quality management standard BS EN ISO 9001, this standard applies to management systems used by educational organizations, or, in other words, what educational businesses do to manage their processes or activities for their products or services to meet their objectives. 

These include meeting learners’ requirements and achieving educational objectives, whilst balancing requirements from other stakeholders and complying with regulations.

BS ISO 21001 provides a common management tool for organizations providing educational products and services capable of meeting learner and other customer requirements and needs. Along with focusing on the management systems of educational organizations, the standard also looks at the impact of these on learners and other relevant parties.

This standard is applicable to any organization that uses a curriculum to support the development of competence through teaching, learning, or research, regardless of the type, size, or method of delivery.

Benefits to your organization of implementing BS ISO 21001

Educational organizations will benefit from implementing this standard by delivering a more impactful and relevant learning experience that is aligned with the organization’s own mission and vision. 

Learners will benefit even more because the education service they receive can be more personalized and suited to their needs, ultimately leading to better learning outcomes.

Other benefits include:

• better alignment of educational mission, vision, objectives, and action plans

• inclusive and equitable quality education for all

• increased credibility of the educational organization

• a framework for improvement

• harmonization of national standards within an international framework

• stimulation of excellence and innovation

By making available a comprehensive set of practices that are applicable to learning service providers across the board, BS ISO 21001 will help build a stronger education sector and provide positive knock-on effects in terms of stimulating innovation and the economy.

Experience these benefits for yourself by adding standard BS ISO 21001 to your collection today.

Discover BSI Knowledge

BS ISO 21001 and over 100,000 more internationally recognized standards are available for simple and flexible access with a BSI Knowledge subscription. A subscription gives you the flexibility and visibility to manage the essential standards you need in order to work with confidence and optimize your education services. Build your own custom collection of standards, or opt for access to our GBM04 Management, Law, Quality module and keep up-to-date with any relevant changes to your standards strategy. Request to learn more.