Question NW3752 to the Minister of Higher Education and Training

Reply:

1. (a) The Council on Higher Education (CHE) has provided information that there is no prescribed period by which a service provider’s course and/or programme should receive accreditation as this is not possible, given the nature of the accreditation processes and the variety of applications received. Accreditation is a peer driven qualitative evaluation process.

(b) (i) CHE’s target period for the application for accreditation of new programmes is six months. Factors affecting the achievement of this target are the following:

• Deferrals, i.e. sent back to the institution for omitted or additional information. This could happen multiple times until all the necessary information has been received and the application is sent to a peer evaluator.
• A site visit is undertaken to verify that the programme will meet the Higher Education Qualifications Committee’s (HEQC’s) criteria for programme accreditation. The site visit report and paper-based evaluation report need to be integrated before the application is tabled.
• A large number of applications are received and they cannot all be tabled on the agenda of the Accreditation Committee (AC) that has the capacity to consider approximately 140 applications of various kinds (accreditation of new programmes, reaccreditation of existing programmes, deferrals, representations, relocation of sites and approval of new sites) in a two-day meeting. This year, one–two day meetings were extended to three days and an additional unscheduled meeting will take place at the end of October to deal with the large number of applications. This expansion in the number of applications submitted is due to new nursing and education programmes submitted to meet the changed professional bodies’ and Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF) regulations. In addition, many institutions are submitting replacement programmes for those that cannot be aligned to the HEQSF.

(ii) In terms of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Act, section 13(1)(h)(i) and (ii), the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) is responsible for the development, registration and publication of qualifications and part qualifications; and to register a qualification or part qualification recommended by a Quality Council (QC) if it meets the relevant criteria. SAQA does not accredit education and training providers or service providers that offer learning programmes. Accreditation is the responsibility of the CHE, which conducts the accreditation and then submits the documents to SAQA for a qualification or part qualification to be registered on the NQF. The service provider will be recorded as the accredited provider on the NQF. The prescribed and targeted period by which SAQA will register qualifications or part qualifications on the NQF is four months from the time of receipt from the CHE.

2. (i) There were approximately 120 applications submitted at the CHE for accreditation of new programmes between January and August 2015 that are still at various stages of processing and peer evaluation. At the next HEQC meeting scheduled to take place at the end of November 2015, 72 applications for accreditation of programmes will receive an outcome and 15 programmes are still in process or have already been through an application process, but may have been referred back for further amendments. These applications will be on the agenda of the Accreditation Committee meeting in January 2016.

(ii) There is no backlog at SAQA regarding qualification registrations.

3. (a) and (b) In terms of the targeted date for accreditation and overdue applications, 84 private institutions submitted applications for accreditation in 2014. Of these, 14 programmes from 9 institutions are still in process as either deferrals or a representation (an opportunity for an institution to provide information in response to the reasons for non-accreditation of a programme submission) after receiving a non-accreditation.

4. (a), (b) and (c) (i) Programmes submitted in 2015: 1 January–30 April 2015: programmes from the following institutions as per the table below, are still in process. Each of these applications went through more than one process and was returned to the institution either for more information (a deferral) requested by the Accreditation Committee or have had a non-accreditation outcome; in this instance they have sent in a representation that again had to go through the evaluation process. These applications will be on the agenda of the Accreditation Committee meeting scheduled for January 2016

.

Name of Institution	2015 submission dates
	12 Jan	19 Jan	10 Feb	12 Feb	23 Mar	24 Mar	26 Mar	31 Mar	1 Apr	9 Apr	13 Apr	22 Apr	24 Apr	Grand Total
African Academy	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Akademia	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Caerus Nursing School	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	1
Chatsmed Candlelight Nursing School	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Darul Uloom Zakariyya	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2
Equine-Librium College	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Foundation for Professional Development	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Oakfields College	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	1
Prestige Academy (Pty) Ltd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	1
S Buys Academy	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
SAISI (South African Institution of Sensory Integration)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	1
Thembelani Institute of Nursing Education and Training	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Tshwane University of Technology	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	2
Grand Total	2	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	15

(c)(ii) SAQA has no current delay regarding processing qualifications and part qualifications received from the CHE for registration.

 

 

 

Compiler/Contact persons:

Ext:

DIRECTOR – GENERAL

STATUS:

DATE:

REPLY TO QUESTION 3752 APPROVED/NOT APPROVED/AMENDED

Dr BE NZIMANDE, MP

MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING

STATUS:

DATE: