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Guidance

International qualified teacher status: criteria for providers

The criteria that organisations must meet to provide international qualified teacher status (iQTS) for applicants training outside the UK.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
15 November 2021
Last updated:
5 October 2026
Show all updates

  1. Added guidance for 2026 to 2027 academic year. We will add iQTS inspection criteria for approved providers when it is agreed.

  2. Added 'International qualified teacher status: criteria and supporting information, 2025 to 2026'.

  3. Updated table 4 in criteria and supporting information for 2024 to 2025 to fix incorrect figures.

  4. Updated 'iQTS: criteria and supporting advice, 2024 to 2025’ to reflect changes to the iQTS general mentor training time requirements, and additional clarifications on the 80% contact ratio time requirement for part-time ITT courses.

  5. 'International qualified teacher status: criteria and supporting information - 2024 to 2025' for courses starting from September 2024 was added.

  6. 'International qualified teacher status: criteria and supporting information' updated to reflect end of pilot year.

  7. Updated 'International qualified teacher status: criteria and supporting information'.

  8. 'Suitability' section updated with information on safeguarding children and childcare disqualification. 'Inspection' section updated with iQTS inspection policy and inspectorate pilot information. Information on international qualifications equivalency, assessing the fitness of applicants and mentoring has been updated.

  9. Section C2.5 updated in preparation for wider roll-out of iQTS. Updates confirm that those who successfully complete iQTS will automatically be awarded qualified teacher status.

  10. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

International qualified teacher status: criteria and supporting information, 2026 to 2027

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Details

This advice is for:

  • accredited English initial teacher training (ITT) providers who are approved to offer iQTS, and their partner schools
  • organisations seeking approval to offer iQTS

The 2026 to 2027 criteria and supporting information applies to courses starting from September 2026.

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