Qualifications Authority warns students not to fall for bogus institutions
The Namibia Qualifications Authority (NQA) in a statement Thursday said that they have observed with concern a number of unaccredited institutions mushrooming and brazenly advertising programmes for next year.
The authority has since warned prospective students at tertiary institutions to be vigilant against bogus institutions that are not accredited with it, to avoid losing money.
NQA’s Manager for Marketing and Communications, Catherine Shipushu said the challenge posed by unaccredited institutions is that due to the fact that they are not quality assured, it is impossible to vaklidate the quality of the educational programmes and thus the employability of graduates from those institutions.
“The continued existence of these unaccredited institutions contributes to increased flooding of the labour market with unemployed graduates,” she added.
Shipushu advised all prospective learners to always study at accredited institutions by verifying their accreditation status prior to enrollment.
“It is important for the public to note that the NQA does not evaluate qualifications obtained at unaccredited institutions and such qualifications will not be recognised for any purpose, be it employment or further studies,” she added.
Shipushu confirmed that the NQA Council has granted accreditation to two additional institutions, at the end of November 2018, and for a list of currently and newly accredited institutions, learners should consult the updated list of accredited Namibian institutions to ascertain any changes to the scopes of accreditation.
She said that some institutions go beyond their specified accreditation scope by offering courses that have not been quality assured.
“A situation which bears critical consequences to learners because although the institution is accredited, any qualification that falls outside the scope of accreditation will not be recognised and essentially if any institutions or course does not appear on this list then it is not accredited,” she added.
She reiterated that they provide a service to assist learners and funding institutions to verify the accreditation status of institutions in the country and anywhere else in the world.
“The list of accredited institutions will be distributed through the newspapers early next year and will also be made available at all Regional Council Officers, schools and libraries countrywide,” she concluded.
