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‘Check status of institutions before enrolling’

The National Accreditation Board (NAB) has advised students seeking higher education in tertiary institutions to always check the status of the school with the board before enrolling in such schools.

It said there were a number of institutions parading as degree-awarding institutions which were not accredited, thereby rendering their certificates invalid.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Mr Kwame Dattey, who gave the advice in an interview, expressed worry that some private institutions were exploiting the thirst for higher education in the country to swindle potential students.

Accredited institutions

He hinted that the NAB was about to publish the names of all accredited institutions and the kind of certificates they were qualified to award.

"It will be best to contact the board to cross check whether the school you are about to enrol in is accredited in Ghana. The board can also assist you to know whether your school is even qualified to run the course it is offering you," he further advised.

Mr Dattey said that was important because a certificate from such a school would not gain the holder any job, "because most of the serious employers forward certificates of job seekers to clarify whether the certificate is genuine."

He explained that if the issuer of the certificate was not accredited by the board, "we just draw the employer's attention that the certificate was issued by an institution that we are not aware of."

Honorary PhD Degrees

Touching on conferring honorary PhD on people, he said he was surprised that some people were carrying such titles as though they had earned them.

The worrying aspect, he said, was the fact that some of such institutions conferring PhD certificates on people were not chartered and, therefore, not qualified to award such certificates.

He has, therefore, appealed to the public to check with the board if they had any reason to doubt the credibility of any institution.

Mr Dattey explained that even though the board had no powers to physically close down an institution not meeting its standards, it could advise the Minister of Education, who had the authority to do.

He further explained that the board often took into consideration the plight of the students currently enrolled and would prefer to dialogue with such institutions instead of resorting to the close down method.

Revoked

The executive secretary said since the establishment of the board, four institutions have had their accreditation revoked because they were not meeting standards.

Touching on the fees charged, institutions seeking accreditation, he said, the NAB often had to hire consultants to carry out the assessments and inspections, adding that the LI establishing NAB mandated it to recover the cost.

Writer’s email: [email protected]

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