Under-resourced and flooded with applications for accreditation, the Higher Education Qualifications Council (HEQC) has its work cut out for it trying to weed out fly-by-night private higher education institutions (PHEIs).
Based in Pretoria, the HEQC only has two permanent staff members who process the accreditation applications from all the PHEIs in South Africa. Four other contract staff members help with screening applications and other administrative tasks.
This small team is responsible for everything from site inspections to evaluations of those institutions seeking accreditation. Last year they processed 79 applications nationwide.
Theo Bhengu, manager of accreditation and coordination at the HEQC, says the process can be as quick as three months, but can also be tied up for long periods when institutions have their applications turned down. ‘When these institutions request a review, with all the toing and froing it can take up to 18 months to finalise.
Decision-making structures at the HEQC can’t meet every day as there are external people involved with very hectic schedules,” says Bhengu.
But this lengthy processing period offers a window of opportunity for some dubious practices. For example, those just applying for accreditation are prohibited from enrolling students until the entire process is complete – but some unscrupulous institutions chose to flout this law. Worse still, unsuspecting students are sometimes fooled into believing that simply applying for accreditation assures the quality of the education provider.
Even if the PHEI succeeds in getting one higher education programme accredited, there are other loopholes that the more unscrupulous exploit. For example, some PHEIs offer all kinds of programmes over and above the approved programmes, but fail to make the distinction between the two clear to students.
‘We know that there are hundreds of institutions out there that are operating outside of the law,” admits the HEQC’s Derek Zitha. ‘But it’s physically impossible to go out to each and every institution to inspect them all and to shut them down.”
Action can be taken against such institutions through the Department of Education and charges of fraud can be laid, says Zitha.
The HEQC also warns that students who register at PHEIs that are
accredited, but which later lose that status after a review process, are left with little protection. The value of qualifications from deregistered PHEIs are compromised when the institution is later stripped of its accreditation.
But Zitha maintains that the current evaluation system is managing to toss out many of the rotten apples in the private higher education sector.
‘We have quite a stringent checks-and-balances system, but we need to do more to protect students and to make them aware of what to look for when they enrol at a private higher education provider,” says Zitha.