Africa-Press – Eswatini. Eswatini Higher Education Council (ESHEC) has issued a total of 50 updated accredited institutions of higher learning, to guide parents who might be interested in registering their children with the institutions.
The institution equally sent a stern warning to parents, to be extra vigilant when registering their children with local tertiary institutions, as some of the courses have been suspended in some of the accredited institutions. ESHEC’s mandate is to develop and implement a quality assurance system for higher education, covering among other areas, registration, accreditation, institutional audits, quality promotion and setting of standards. After Form V results are released around February, the school leavers start applying to tertiary institutions of their choice, which is why ESHEC has issued the warning.
Suspended
While some of the institutions are accredited, there are programmes which were no longer offered. Also, a list of institutions where the Primary Teachers’ Diploma (PTD) has been suspended has been issued, including institutions whose applications for registration were declined. Advocacy and Communications Officer at ESHEC, Mihla Khumalo, said it was important for parents and applicants to verify the colleges they were applying to. Khumalo said some parents did not cross-check if the tertiary institution was accredited or not, if they did, he said they forgot to check programmes offered. Khumalo advised parents to check the credibility of the institution and also cross-check the programmes offered. He said while some of the institutions were accredited, there were programmes that were suspended, while in other institutions they were discontinued. “When we accredit, we also scrutinise the courses offered. This means the public can also detail which courses they have applied for so we can assess.”
Standards
According to Khumalo, in order to be registered, institutions should meet standards as set out in the Higher Education (General) Regulations of 2016, published in Legal Notice 14 of 2016. These, he said, included that for an institution to be recognised if granted approval, it should have a provisional authority to establish and operate in accordance with section 19 of the Higher Education Act of 2013. Khumalo said a new and establishing institution may be granted provisional authority to establish and operate for a period not exceeding two years.
Furthermore, he said in terms of Part IV of the Higher Education Act of 2013, an institution which has met the quality standards to the satisfaction of the council may be given full registration.
Khumalo also stated that institutional accreditation was granted in line with Part V of the Higher Education Act. “It may be granted to an institution that has operated for over five years under the full registration certificate and has proven beyond doubt that all its structures and operations are effective.” Khumalo said the institution should also have proven that it is internally and externally efficient. Meanwhile in May last year, seven former students of Xtreme Training and Conferencing Academy approached the court, seeking the director of the institution to refund them money amounting to E70 545, which they had spent on tuition fees. The former students were studying phlebotomy technician and psychosocial between the years 2020 and 2022.
Agreement
The former students stated, in court papers filed at the High Court of Eswatini, that part of the oral agreement was that upon completion of the courses, they would be employed right away because the institution was allegedly registered with the ESHEC. The students said upon completion of their various courses and after payment of the full tuition fees, they discovered that the institution had made a material misrepresentation of facts when the oral agreement was entered into.
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