Johnathan Paoli
THE Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation Blade Nzimande has called upon the institutions under the Educor group to find alternative places of learning for its students in order to complete their studies.
Minister Nzimande gave a media briefing on Tuesday in Pretoria on the deregistration of Educor colleges, namely City Varsity, Damelin, Lyceum and Icesa City Campus.
This follows the department’s cancellation of registrations for these institutions, due to their failure to submit annual financial certificates and tax clearance certificates for the 2021/2022 financial years.
The Minister said his department is willing to offer assistance in finding replacement for the many students left behind in the wake of the announcement.
“It is incumbent upon Educor and its institutions to find alternative institutions for the students to complete their studies either public or private. And by the way, we are a very generous department. We are also willing to assist on that score in the identification of relevant institutions where students will be able to complete their studies,” Nzimande said.
Nzimande said for years, the national department has been inundated by students at Educor campuses complaining about the poor quality of teaching and learning; lack of proper administrative support; poorly qualified staff; corruption and bribery; lack of response for requests for refunds; lack of professionalism; exploitation of poor students; non-payment of staff salaries and underpayment of staff salaries.
The Educor institutions were, therefore, being unreasonable in seeking further extensions, he said.
“They think I must be among the kindest of ministers to keep on granting extension after extension, where they know that they are supposed to comply in terms of the law,” he said.
Furthermore, Nzimande said after “serious issues” were brought to his attention, the Higher Education Quality Committee previously withdrew the accreditation of some programmes for City Varsity, Damelin and Lyceum College.
“Another matter is misrepresentation of student numbers. Educor claims to have 50,000 learners in the system – so they claim. This information is incorrect,” said Nzimande.
The Minister said according to the 2022 annual reports, student enrollment with City Varsity was 540, Damelin had 4012 students, Icesa City campus with 145, and Lyceum College with 8399, for a total of 13096 students under the Educor group.
The Minister reminded the group of its obligations under Regulation 17 which stated that the institutions had to inform its students within two weeks of the deregistration, issue to each enrolled student a copy of his or her academic transcript as contemplated in the regulations, reimburse or compensate any enrolled student who has a lawful claim, make adequate arrangements for affected students to complete their programmes at a comparable public or private institution, cease operating before or at the end of the academic year, and ensure that no new students are enrolled after the date specified by the Registrar.
In conclusion, Nzimande said that there is not much information available about the current leadership structure at Educor and there is no credible evidence to suggest that the management of Educor is working to improve or correct some of the serious governance and compliance failures.
“What we are seeing, instead, are students and staff being left stranded and we wish to urge the affected staff to seek the assistance of the Labor Court and the CCMA,” the Minister said.
INSIDE EDUCATION
