The Education Act 1994 (c. 30) is an act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under John Major's government in 1994, which primarily established the Teacher Training Agency and allowed students to opt out of students' unions.

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Education Act 1994

Act of Parliament
United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to make provision about teacher training and related matters; to make provision with respect to the conduct of students’ unions; and for connected purposes.
Citation	1994 c. 30
Territorial extent	England and Wales (whole Act) Scotland (Part II and Schedule 2) Northern Ireland (Schedule 2)
Dates
Royal assent	21 July 1994
Commencement	21 September 1994 (except ss. 22(4),22(5) and 22(6)) 1 April 1995 (ss. 22(4),22(5) and 22(6))
Repealed	1 September 2005 (sections 1-11 & 12-17)
Other legislation
Amended by	Education Act 1996 Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Act 1996 Audit Commission Act 1998 School Standards and Framework Act 1998 Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 Education and Inspections Act 2006 Education and Skills Act 2008 Education Act 2011 Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act 2013 Higher Education and Research Act 2017
Repealed by	Education Act 2005 (sections 1-11 & 12-17)
Status: Partially repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Education Act 1994 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.

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Part I relates to teacher training and includes the establishment of the Teacher Training Agency.^[1]

Part II of the Education Act gave effect to students' freedom of association by mandating that students must be permitted to opt out of any students' union without being unfairly disadvantaged; this provision replaced an earlier proposal that would have made membership voluntary (i.e. opt-in), which had been seen to have a significant impact on membership of students' unions in Australia and was expected to have a similar impact in the UK.^[2] This Part also places further restrictions on Students' Unions by requiring that affiliation to external organizations must be voted on at referendum if 5% of the membership requests a referendum and restricts the time a sabbatical officer can serve to two years. It also stipulates that a students' union must be governed democratically and must be accountable for its finances.^[3]

There are various other clauses about the finances and external affiliations of students' unions.

Section 22 of the Act requires that "the procedure for allocating resources to groups or clubs should be fair and should be set down in writing and freely accessible to all students". This has generated some controversy because of the way it can be interpreted. Some assert that it requires all university societies that draw on students' union funding to be open to membership by all students, whilst others assert that this does not explicitly prevent a society of a students' union from restricting its membership to those who share the aims and purposes of the society.