Institutional and departmental self-assessment will become increasingly important instruments in inspection systems operated by the Further Education Funding Council (FEFQ and the Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs). Their introduction is being primarily driven by the need to reduce costs associated with quality assurance. Post-16 institutions can currently be required to report to a number of external sponsors and over the past three to four years the cost of these, not only to the institution but to the sponsors, has become prohibitive. The FEFC has yet to publish the guidelines for self-assessment and these should be available during 1997. At present
