The National Accreditation Board (NAB) has barred Jayee University College and the Data Link University College from admitting new students henceforth due to under staffing and overcrowding.
The Executive Secretary of NAB, Kwame Dattey disclosed this to after a media Seminar in Accra today.
For Jayee, the NAB boss said it was barred because of under staffing and overcrowding whilst Data Link was barred due to over congestion.
“We have ordered the two schools to stop admitting fresh students henceforth. The sanction will be lifted when they move to new sites and also improve upon their staffing,” Mr. Dattey stated.
He however indicated that the ban would be lifted if the aforementioned institutions abide by the accreditation board’s directives to relocate to a more spacious and congenial learning environment and also increase their staffing strength.
In a presentation, Mr Dattey also expressed grave concern over the proliferation of institutions purporting to be offering courses in Law. But, he was quick to assure that the NAB was working with the General Legal Council to bring the issue under the control.
Mr Dattey, therefore advised students to always seek advice from the NAB before applying to tertiary schools especially the private ones.
Touching on the operations of the board, Mr Dattey stated: ” On-site visits undertaken by the Institutional Visits Committee of the Board to check on the institution as a whole – assessing material, financial, physical and above all, human resources available for the operation of the institution.
This visit is based on a self-evaluation report submitted by the institution (in an NAB approved format).
He used the seminar to educate the journalists on the critical indicators of granting accreditation to tertiary institutions. These, Mr Dattey mentioned include: Organisation and governance, Academic and administrative leadership, Student matters, Quality assurance mechanisms, library, and physical facilities of the institution.
On programme accreditation, he said: “For programme accreditation, institutions submit self-evaluation reports as well. Panels of experts in the specific disciplines are constituted to visit and assess the capacity of the institution to deliver the programmes”.
Critical indicators for granting programme accreditation, according to him include: “Aims and objectives of the programme; components of programme – required courses, elective courses, research component, practical training; short description of courses; staffing – academic, technical and support; Physical facilities – specific to the programme; and Financial requirements for each programme and sources of funding.
For affiliation of institutions, the NAB Executive Secretary stated: ” The Law provides that all newly established private tertiary institutions should be affiliated to recognised/accredited tertiary institutions for the purposes of mentoring and award of certificates to graduands of the newly established institutions”.
Regulation 13 provides that: “The Board shall satisfy itself that the applicant has a firm commitment or proof of affiliation with a recognised institution or examination body for the award of its certificates”, Mr Dattey indicated.
He was quick to urge tertiary institutions to endeavour to adhere to the NAB’s Quality Assurance (QA) to enable them improve teaching and learning in their schools.
Under Academic Audits of the QA, Mr Dattey noted that this was a post-accreditation exercise for quality assurance. The objective is to: Provide guidance to NAB for making evidence-based QA recommendations to tertiary institutions; and provide advisory services to NAB on QA issues.
Critical indicators reported on by the audit team include: adherence to entry requirements; audit of examination results at all levels; teacher and student workloads; staffing and qualifications of lecturers; and external examiners and their involvement in the conduct of examinations – sampling of marked scripts.
For instance the audit outcomes of the NAB indicated that; “some students do not meet entry requirements; some students do not meet graduation requirements in terms of total number of credits for graduation; sub-standard examination questions and poor marking of scripts – no marking schemes; poor theses/long essays; and Poor staffing – both in qualification and numbers, according to Mr Dattey.
African Eye News.com
