Independent audit · Dual career environments
The independent dual career audit provider in higher education.
We review how education and elite sport are working together at your institution, and hand you a clear, independent picture of it. Every engagement begins with a free scoping assessment.
The case for the work
Why audit dual careers?
Because the bodies that set the direction for this field asked for exactly that, and the external half of it has largely gone unbuilt.
Why ALC exists
Universities are the best institutions in which to pursue education and sport at the highest level simultaneously.
- Because of that, we understand how demanding it is to manage two high demand pursuits at once, for the staff supporting it as much as the students living it.
- They are often treated as two separate things, but they are lived as one. That is how dual careers come to quietly shape the outcomes both staff and students are measured on.
- Universities have a great deal to manage, so we offer independent dual career audits and review this on your behalf.
- We handle the audit entirely from our side, and run a scoping assessment beforehand to check the service is the right fit for you.
- Our audits do what the audits commissioned across your other departments each year already do, applied to an area that carries real weight for the university, the staff, and the students managing dual careers.
Book your scoping assessment to see whether this suits your goals.
No commitment, no contract, no cost.
Book a scoping assessmentThe audit
The Dual Career Environment Audit
A twelve-week independent audit of how your dual career environment is operating, measured against the commitments you have already made. It looks at five dimensions.
Evidence is cross-checked across conversations with your staff and student athletes, your own documentation, and a review of how decisions get made in practice, so no finding rests on a single account. The engagement concludes with a full written report, delivered to leadership and structured for audit committee use, with every finding traceable to the evidence behind it.
The method follows recognised international audit and assurance standards, set out in full in our Professional Standards Note, which we are glad to send you before you commit to anything.
Time-to-Outcome Integrity
How competitive commitments and the standard academic timeline work together.
Performance Continuity
How peak academic load and competitive demand are planned alongside one another.
Transition Readiness
How athletes are prepared for the transition points of a dual career, including the unexpected ones.
Collision Recovery
How the environment absorbs the moments when both sides peak at once, and supports recovery afterwards.
Support Ecosystem Coherence
How the functions around the athlete are coordinated with one another.
What it asks of you
We carry the work.
Your side of an ALC engagement is deliberately small, agreed in writing before anything begins, and planned around your academic calendar rather than across it.
- One named contact at your institution, rather than a working group.
- We gather the published material ourselves and schedule the conversations.
- Scope, evidence requirements and timeline are fixed in the engagement letter, so nothing new is asked of you mid-engagement.
- You review the draft for factual accuracy before anything is finalised.
- The report arrives ready for leadership and audit committee use.
The report is yours. Findings stay confidential to your institution, and ALC names a client only with written consent once an engagement has completed.
How it works
The same clear sequence, every time.
Every engagement follows the same steps and is governed in writing from the first one, so you always know what happens next. It begins with a scoping assessment at your institution, at no cost.
Application
A short application, reviewed against ALC’s suitability criteria. You receive a response within five working days.
Scoping assessment
Where suitability is indicated, ALC conducts the scoping assessment at your institution, in person, at no cost. It is a structured conversation across a small number of roles, contained to a single visit.
Scope Recommendation Note
A one-page note setting out ALC’s view on whether an audit would serve you now, with the reasoning behind it. The note is yours to keep, and it is written to be useful either way.
Proposal and engagement letter
Where an audit is indicated, you receive a fully defined proposal. The engagement letter governs scope, evidence requirements, confidentiality, data rights, and timeline before anything begins.
The twelve-week audit
Evidence is gathered from three sources and cross-checked against each other: structured conversations with your staff and student athletes, your institution’s documentation, and a review of how decisions are made in practice. The engagement is led throughout by the named lead auditor.
Report and readout
A full written report, delivered to leadership and structured for audit committee use. Each dimension is written up in full, with the evidence behind every finding set out. The findings are presented in person.
The method
Measured against what you have already committed to.
The audit measures your dual career environment against the commitments you have already made. Your own published policies and athlete charters, the national or regional dual career framework your institution works within, and the European Commission’s dual career guidelines, which remain the most widely referenced description of what a well designed dual career environment looks like.
So what you get back is a clear read on how much of that is actually happening on the ground, and how well it holds when demand rises on both sides at once.
How well an athlete gets through a dual career depends heavily on how the environment around them is put together, and that is the part you can shape.
How every dimension is audited
Three sources of evidence, checked against each other.
Every dimension is examined the same way, drawing on the same three sources: structured conversations with your staff and your student athletes, your own documentation, and a review of how decisions get made in practice. The three are checked against each other, so no finding rests on a single account.
Each dimension is then written up in full. You get a considered account of what is working, where it is holding, where it is strained, and what the evidence for each of those is.
What the audit produces
Five written accounts. One clear picture.
There is no score and no rating. A number tends to pull the conversation onto the number itself, and the useful part of an audit is the reasoning underneath it. So each dimension gets a written summary with its evidence set out, and the report closes with an overall picture your audit committee can read and act on. It is written for internal use. ALC does not publish findings, does not compare institutions with one another, and does not share your report with anyone.
The audit method belongs to ALC and is grounded in published research that ALC cites and applies, including doctoral research conducted at Loughborough University London by the firm’s founding director in his academic capacity. No data collected under doctoral research ethics forms part of the method or any audit, in line with the ALC Data Provenance Statement.
The evidence
Recognised at the highest level, and ready to be independently verified.
For over a decade, the most senior bodies in world sport and public policy have recognised that elite athletes in education depend on the environment around them, and have called on institutions to build it well. Independent verification is the piece that completes the picture, and it is the work ALC exists to do.
Major sporting nations have responded
National systems, worldwide
The Australian Institute of Sport leads the Elite Sport Education Network, made up of universities, vocational providers and other education providers committed to supporting elite athletes, coaches and officials.
Game Plan, a collaboration between the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sport Institute Network, includes an education network of post-secondary institutions.
TASS, the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme, is delivered through a network of universities, schools and colleges, bringing national federations and educational institutions together in support of athletes pursuing dual careers.
Each scheme reflects the same recognition, that the environment shapes the outcome. Membership signals commitment. Independent verification is a separate discipline, and it is the one ALC practises. ALC is affirmative of these schemes throughout and is never a substitute for any of them.
Grounded in published scholarship
The research
A decade of peer-reviewed research has followed the Commission’s Guidelines, examining how athletes experience the combination of elite sport and study. The consistent finding across that literature is that outcomes for this cohort are shaped by the configuration of the environment around the athlete rather than by individual resilience alone.
ALC’s audit method draws on that literature and on doctoral research conducted at Loughborough University London by the firm’s founding director, cited by ALC as published academic work.
Pricing
Published, so you can plan around it.
We put our fees on this page because the people who find us usually need a figure before they can take the idea anywhere internally. Waiting on a quote costs you a fortnight you did not need to spend, so here it is.
Dual Career Environment Audit
All five dimensions. Evidence gathered from your staff, your student athletes, your documentation and your decision-making in practice. Full written report, delivered to leadership, structured for audit committee use, and presented in person.
What the fee covers
One figure, and nothing arriving afterwards.
- Travel, accommodation and every visit to your campus sit inside the fee, wherever in the world you are.
- The scoping assessment beforehand is free, in person, and carries no obligation.
- Payment is staged against the deliverables you receive, set out in the engagement letter before anything starts.
- The fee is the same for every institution we work with, which we think is the fairest way to do it and means you can budget straight from this page.
- Everything your procurement or finance team needs from us is packaged in advance and sent in one go, on the day it is asked for.
Frequently asked questions
Direct answers, in writing, before you ask.
How is this different from accreditation or membership of a national scheme?
They are different instruments, and a mature system carries both. Accreditation and network membership recognise an institution’s commitment to dual career support, and ALC is affirmative of that work throughout. An independent audit looks at how the environment is operating in practice, evidenced across conversations with staff and student athletes, documentation, and a review of practice, and set against the commitments the institution has already made. Accreditation says an institution has committed. An audit shows what that commitment is producing. ALC is complementary to these schemes and never a substitute for them.
Why is ALC based in the United Kingdom?
The firm is registered and headquartered in London because that is where it was founded, and where its legal, insurance and professional infrastructure sits. It is our head office rather than our market. The UK is also a useful base for this particular work, with one of the longest established dual career support networks in the world and close proximity to the European policy environment that shaped the field internationally. Institutions anywhere are welcome to apply, and the audit itself is delivered on your campus wherever that is.
Our university is in a different country to the auditor. Does that work?
Yes, and it is planned for. Contextual research is conducted before every audit is delivered. That covers your national education system, your sporting pathway and governing body arrangements, the funding and eligibility rules your athletes sit under, and the dual career framework your institution operates within. All of it happens before we set foot on your campus, so the conversations we have with your staff start from an informed position rather than a general one. Travel sits inside the fee. If anything about your national context calls for a specialist eye, we will say so at scoping rather than after you have signed.
Why an audit? Why does ALC offer no support services or implementation help?
Because it keeps the report clean, and that is what makes it useful to you. An auditor who also sells the fix has a financial interest in what the audit finds, which is why financial audit and consulting were structurally separated across the corporate world. ALC takes no remediation contracts and holds no stake in any finding beyond its accuracy, so your governing body can take the report at face value. What you do with the findings is yours, delivered with enough evidence and clarity that your own teams can act on them.
What does the audit involve for us?
Twelve weeks, with one named contact on your side. Evidence is gathered from three sources: structured conversations with your staff and student athletes, your institution’s own documentation, and a review of how decisions are made in practice. We gather the published material ourselves and schedule the conversations. The institutional ask is deliberately contained and set out in full in the engagement letter before anything begins, so nothing new arrives mid-engagement.
Who sees the report?
You do. The report is delivered to your leadership, structured for audit committee use, and it is yours. You review the draft for factual accuracy before it is finalised. ALC does not publish institutional findings, does not name clients without written consent secured after completion, and does not share your data with any third party. Whether and how you share the report is your decision.
What happens to our data, and to what our athletes say?
Athlete consultation is conducted under informed consent, and findings are reported so that no individual athlete is identifiable to the institution. Institutional data is held under the terms of the engagement letter and ALC’s data protection documentation, all of which is available before you ever sign anything. Your report is yours. ALC does not publish findings, does not compare institutions with one another, and does not share your data with anyone. Anonymised, aggregated findings are used more widely only where you agree to it in the engagement letter.
What if some of the findings are difficult?
Some may be, and that is what makes the rest of the report worth holding. Two things protect you. Every finding is set out with the evidence behind it, so nothing lands as opinion, and you review the draft for factual accuracy before it is finalised. The report is then yours. A difficult finding delivered privately, with its evidence trail, is among the most useful documents an institution can hold, because it turns an unknown into something defined that you can plan around.
What does it cost?
The Dual Career Environment Audit is £28,500, covering the full twelve weeks. Travel and every campus visit are inside the fee, wherever you are. Payment is staged against the deliverables you receive. The scoping assessment beforehand is free, in person, and carries no obligation. Fuller detail is in the pricing section above.
How do we know whether we need this?
That is exactly what the scoping assessment is for. It ends with a one-page recommendation setting out ALC’s view and the reasoning behind it, and one of the available conclusions is that the timing is not right. We would rather tell you that than run an audit that adds little to what you already know.
Who conducts the audit, and what can we see before we commit?
Every ALC engagement is led by its named lead auditor, who is the named author on every report. All known conflicts are disclosed in writing before each engagement, under ALC’s Independence and Impartiality Policy. Ahead of any commitment we are glad to send the Professional Standards Note, the Independence and Impartiality Policy, the Ethics, Confidentiality and Data Protection Position, the Privacy Notice, and the Data Provenance Statement, together with our company, insurance and registration details for your procurement team. Ask and they come the same day.
How does this relate to the outcomes we already report on?
Elite student athletes sit inside your headline outcome figures, your student voice results, and your wider commitments, counted within the whole rather than reported separately. Their experience moves those figures either way, and the audit gives you a clear read on the environment producing them. The reporting frame is context. The practical value is seeing what that environment is doing.
Can our athletes be affected by taking part?
No athlete is assessed, scored, or reported on individually. Consultation is voluntary, consent-based, and reported in a form that protects every individual. Athletes tend to experience the process as the first time the whole of their situation has been asked about in one place.
We already run strong dual career provision. What would an audit add?
Then the audit turns that into evidence you can use. An independent written account of a strong environment is something you can put in front of your board, your athletes, and your recruitment market with complete confidence. Institutions already confident in their environment tend to gain the most, because the audit gives them the evidence for it.
The first step
Book a scoping assessment
Every ALC engagement begins the same way, with a scoping assessment at your institution. It is free, conducted in person, and concludes with a written recommendation that is yours to keep.
The purpose is to establish fit, so that any audit you go on to commission is one that earns its place. Where the timing is not right, the recommendation says so plainly and you are under no obligation.