Award

King’s College London Postgraduate Learning Offer

Department for Education

UK5: Transparency notice - Procurement Act 2023 - view information about notice types

Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-058222

Procurement identifier (OCID): ocds-h6vhtk-059e5d (view related notices)

Published 19 September 2025, 3:58pm

Scope

Reference

project_10124

Description

This Direct Award is to King's College London for the delivery of the King's College London Postgraduate Learning Offer (KCL PGL2) from January 2026. This will include enrolment on standalone modules up until July 2027, with the final enrolment point for the postgraduate certificate/ diploma in March 2027. Designed with the UK Civil Service, the KCL PGL2 is designed for mid-career civil servants, to support their development at level 2 of the policy profession standards. This offer is designed to be flexible and modular.

This direct award aims to provide learners continuity of service and provision, ensuring that there is no break in our ability to deliver mid-career accredited learning whilst we undertake a full procurement. If this Direct Award were not to proceed, we would have a gap in learning provision at this level, as KCL are the only supplier available to provide flexible, modular learning explicitly aligned to the policy profession standards. Proceeding via a direct award is the favourable option in comparison to other available contracting vehicles , as it represents a significant saving in comparison to the current per student cost

The Direct Award will also allow us to undertake a full procurement exercise for delivery of Accredited Learning from September 2027, allowing us to test the requirements of the policy profession against the wider higher education market

Contract 1. King’s College London Postgraduate Learning Offer

Supplier

King's College London

Contract value

£2,751,328 excluding VAT
£2,751,328 including VAT

Above the relevant threshold

Earliest date the contract will be signed

10 October 2025

Contract dates (estimated)

10 October 2025 to 31 July 2027
1 year, 9 months, 22 days

Main procurement category

Services

CPV classifications

80300000 - Higher education services

Other information

Conflicts assessment prepared/revised

Yes

Procedure

Procedure type

Direct award

Direct award justification

Single supplier - technical reasons

KCL is the only supplier that could deliver the conclusion of 2025 diploma cohort without disruption to learners, due to the conclusion of the current Framework. Due to recruitment timelines (beginning October 2025), it will be impossible to have a new supplier in place for the delivery of the January 2026 cohort. A quotation from the supplier indicates an estimated saving of £145,070 across government when compared to the current contract, based off historic average student volumes. This extension would allow time for us to test requirements against the open market through a full procurement exercise.

Supplier