Patrick Commercial College in Gauteng, also known as Patcom College, is marketing programmes for which it is not registered.
Currently the college is registered with the Department of Education’s directorate of private higher education institutions (PHEIs) to offer only information technology at certificate and diploma levels.
However, a brochure from the college’s Benoni branch is calling for interested learners to ‘formalise your hard-earned experience into formally international recognised and accredited qualifications” and enrol for a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in Tourism at higher education level.
But according to the Department of Education, the college is in a ‘phasing out period” and will formally cease to exist at the end of this year. And it takes a three-year ‘cooling off” period before another registration can be submitted.
The department’s registration requirements oblige the college to see current students through their training until the end of this year and inform students that their registration is, or is about to be, revoked.
The reason for termination of Patcom College’s registration, according to the department, is ‘failure to submit an annual financial audit for the year 2002 that meets the requirement of the Act and the Regulations”.
The college’s co-ordinator, Patrick Nyathi, says as far as they are concerned they have met all registration requirements, adding that they are also aware the college will wind up its operations at the end of the year. Apparently the college is not keen to appeal or re-register with the department but will instead become an ‘official study centre” of a USA-based distance education outfit known as Barrington University.
‘We will not be offering any lessons, as Barrington University will handle everything. They will also confer qualifications to learners who have passed the course. We will only be helping with administration,” says Nyathi. However, the Department of Education says Barrington University is not registered with them, as is required by the Higher Education Act.
Nyathi says this is not necessary. ‘Barrington University is not obliged to register as it is based overseas. We are the ones who have to register and we have already done so.”
He says this is a common practice as a number of South African learners have enrolled with overseas-based learning institutions.
But the department insists that the Higher Education Act stipulates that all institutions offering programmes at the higher education band, both local and overseas-based, are compelled to register with them.
The college is not registered for General and Further Education and Training (FET) programmes either. Vijayen Naidoo, an FET manager at Umalusi – a quality assurer in General and an FET – says Patcom College was provisionally accredited for six months. The accreditation expired in November 2003 following Patcom’s failure to submit outstanding information.
Another apparent violation of the department’s requirements is the failure by the college to reflect on its official letterheads the registration number as well as the band at which its programmes are pitched – a requirement by the department to enable members of the public to verify an institution’s legitimacy.
Instead the letterhead only displays the physical address as well as the registration number that confirms the college is registered as a company in accordance with the Companies Act as regulated by the Higher Education Act.
It is not clear if Patcom College has informed its learners about its impeding closure at the end of the year.
The tragedy is that once an institution is deregistered the worth of its qualifications diminishes.