Some private higher institutions exaggerate their strengths and do not mention their weaknesses in the hope of being accredited. This is one thing that Derrick Zitha, a Council on Higher Education (CHE) project administrator in the HEQC division, has learnt by comparing what’s written on the application to the reality during site visits.
Zitha recalls one experience when he flew to Durban for an evaluation of what he had been led to believe was a ‘developed institution with the necessary requirementsâ€. He and his colleague left their hotel for their 7:30am appointment at the institution, expecting to be busy there for most of the day. ‘I was a bit intimidated at the idea of meeting all those professors mentioned on paper,†Zitha says.
They arrived at the address quite quickly but were very confused by what they saw. ‘We drove around the building a couple of times wondering if we were at the right place. The building did not look anything like a learning institution,†he says. ‘The tall building had no sign whatsoever of where the school was. We had to ask around.â€
They eventually found the principal’s office, which they later discovered was also used as a staff room and a library. ‘We interviewed the principal and then asked to meet his deputy. The deputy principal was a former student who had graduated the previous year. We then asked to meet other staff members and we discovered that the two were the only staff at the institution. When we asked to meet the people whom they named on their submission, we were told some of them had died, while some had left the country. It was clear those people never existed.â€
After an interview with the principal and his deputy, the evaluators were shown a ‘libraryâ€, which was a shelf filled with no more than 50 books. And as for the classrooms: ‘There were only two very small, dilapidated classrooms. Each had about 10 chairs and a few tables,†says Zitha.
The site visit, which normally takes more than just one day, took about three to four hours to complete. ‘All we had to do to see the school was to stand in the corridor and there it was – the whole school – two classrooms and an office-library-staff room,†recalls Zitha.
According to Theo Bhengu, manager of programme accreditation and private providers, this institution cannot continue to operate until it has implemented changes to meet the conditions for accreditation.
Although this was one of the worst cases, Bhengu says there is a tendency among private providers to misrepresent themselves on their paper submissions. For example, ‘At one institution, the evaluators were shown a bar when they asked for a recreational facility,†he says.
Bhengu, however, says there are institutions out there offering quality higher education. ‘I think some of them are getting there. This process is new to them. They need time to build their capacity,†he says.