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Academic Supervisory Role: Aegis, Tutelage, and Degree Awarding
Alongside its core mission the University Academy has been entrusted with a "fathering" or grandfathering role of academic-supervisory nature. This role comprises the organisational aegis and tutelage and the awarding of degrees for the programmes offered by certain institutions of (specialised) higher education. This is undertaken by virtue of the authority vested upon the University Academy, by means of an Exceptional Inter-Collegiate Charter, also called the Noyon Charter (named after the city in France where the Charter was signed). The 2003 General Assembly of the University Academy's members ratified the Charter. A year later the Charter was jointly endorsed by eight recognised institutions of higher education from around the world, and by one supranational organisation. The subsequent and consortium type of endorsement by sixty-four universities and colleges, and two other supranational organisations, finalised the worldwide approval of the Brexgata aegis, tutelage, and validation system.
The term 'Exceptional' refers to the application of the Charter in situations where an educational institution is regarded as a specific exception to the recognition criteria applied in a given country or region. In the 'exception' cases, the mission, statutes (bylaws), discipline(s) of academic study, language and/or mode of instruction, and/or programmes offered by such an institution, and the jurisdiction, conditions, and frameworks of the (local) governmental validation, can be of such a nature or degree of incompatibility that local (national) recognition is deemed to be impossible. In line with the Universal Declaration and the European Convention of Human Rights, and with various international laws and supranational guidelines, the Noyon Charter therefore provides the most adequate legal, academic, and official framework of operation and worldwide validation for such institutions and their programmes, which would otherwise be impaired in their functioning in a given country or region. Legally established schools and institutions of higher education, and which apply the generally accepted academic and operating standards and norms in higher education, can benefit from the Brexgata aegis, but only if the conditions of 'exception' have been demonstrated.
The duration of an aegis and tutelage by Brexgata is of five years. At the end of the five-year term, upon successful compliance by the educational institution throughout the entire tutelage, and unless changes have taken place in local (national) legislation (which would permit validation by a governmental body), the authority vested by virtue of the Charter is passed directly onto the institution (thus replacing the University Academy's tutelage). An example of an institution that operates under the Brexgata aegis and tutelage system is the Thierry Graduate School, an independent institution of higher education established in Brussels.
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