/ 13 November 2024

Staff and students at beleaguered Educor institutions still ‘in the dark’

Damelin
Educor, the largest private education provider in Southern Africa, owns the Damelin, CityVarsity, Icesa City Campus and Lyceum colleges.

Educor Holdings staff and students remain uncertain about whether they can complete the academic year, even after Higher Education and Training Minister Nobuhle Nkabane provisionally reinstated its registration in August.

This is after then higher education minister Blade Nzimande in March said the registration of Educor institutions — City Varsity, Damelin, Icesa, City Campus and Lyceum College — had been cancelled on 26 July 2023.

He said the institutions had not complied with the Higher Education Act and had submitted their annual financial statements and tax clearance certificates for the 2021 and 2022 years, as proof of their financial viability.

The department had also received complaints from the public about the institutions including non-payment of staff salaries and a lack of professionalism.

The company’s property arm, Educor Property Holdings, is facing 10 liquidation applications relating to loans that Nedbank has filed against it in the Durban high court. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has a 42% stake in the company after investing R755 million in 2015.

Staff members at one of the Educor institutions, who asked to remain anonymous, said this week that the provisional reinstatement of registration on “humanitarian grounds” should have been a relief but staff salary delays were “getting really bad”.

Some who have not been paid for August, September and October have filed cases with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. 

One staff member who works at City Varsity in Cape Town said: “I am currently unpaid for September and October. The resulting financial pressure on my family has been huge, as we’ve had to rely on credit to cover the outstanding salaries. As interest mounts and minimum payments get bigger, the situation becomes more and more stressful.” 

She said the fact that most staff had not resigned “speaks to the deep love and dedication we have to our students and campus”.

“But that dedication also has a flip side. I have to witness my students struggle to get answers and make decisions about their academic year and future studies, and I am unable to provide them any answers or advice. We’re all in the dark, students and staff, about what’s next,” she said.

“But students and fee payers are understandably reluctant to pay fees when they have not had classes for months, and this after the deregistration announcement [in March] already shook their confidence.

“If we have any hope of completing the academic year, it will need to be extended into 2025 … student anxiety and stress over their future studies has been high, but at least we were all committed to completing the year.

“There are also huge financial ramifications for students and parents. If we do not complete the year, will these students get refunds? Students would have lost a year or more of their lives. Some, who are on the verge of graduating, will lose even more time if they want to complete the year elsewhere, as credit transfer rules don’t allow you to transfer more than 50% of your credits from one institution to another.”

She said staff and management had suggested many strategies and solutions to improve the marketing, student intake and fee structure of the institution but these had not been implemented. The teacher also wondered how much oversight the PIC has had as a major investor in Educor over the years.

A second staff member said he had not been paid for September and October and students were unsure whether classes would resume and they could finish their qualifications.

Educor Holdings and its founder Leo Chetty had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication. Higher education spokesperson Camagwini Mavovana said the department was “not commenting currently” on the matter and referred queries to Educor. The PIC had also not commented by the time of publication.