THE Higher Education Authority (HEA) has warned private universities and colleges against the habit of enrolling grade 12 failures who do not meet the minimum entry requirements.
HEA Director General Kazhila Chinsembu warned that universities and colleges that will be found with students who do not have a full grade 12 certificate risk being deregistered.
Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, Professor Chinsembu stated that enrolling such individuals is a crime as it evades the Higher Education Act.
The Professor said institutions that fraudulently admit students into college or university shall face the full force of the Higher Education Act and its subsidiary regulations.
“Over the past decade, an era characterised by the mushrooming of cornershop universities, regulation of higher education institutions was very weak. Our nation will pay a heavy price if we fail to rethink and revise the permissible parameters in which the private sector should provide university education. We are therefore very worried about the high numbers of private universities providing programs in medicine and surgery.”
“We have noted that some faith based and youth based institutions of higher learning are abrogating the law by enrolling students that do not meet the minimum entry requirements. These institutions will be deregistered, you cannot claim to provide opportunities to the youth by breaking the law, by evading the higher education act, by making the youth cheat their way into college,” said the Professor.
He added that this month, the authority shall be conducting institutional and academics audits at the Copperbelt University (CBU) followed by the University of Zambia (UNZA) next month.
“Our nation shall not develop if we compromise on the quality of our higher education. A university is not a shopping mall, it is not a bazaar for degrees, we get worried when degrees are easily obtained. We are flabbergasted and disgusted by some of universities that recklessly enroll students who don’t qualify,” said Professor Chimsembu.
And the authority’s Director Quality Assurance, Martin Mushamba revealed at the briefing that in line with the new regulations, colleges will only be able to provide diplomas.
By Catherine Pule
Kalemba, November 12, 2024
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