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SMC University can’t enrol fresh students, NAB withdraws registration

SMC University can’t enrol fresh students, NAB withdraws registration

The Swiss Management Centre (SMC), a private university in Switzerland, which runs courses in Ghana as a foreign university, can no longer enroll fresh students as the National Accreditation Board (NAB) has withdrawn its registration.

However, continuing students can still go ahead and complete their courses since the NAB has maintained the registration of the SMC for such students in the next three years.

In addition, the credentials of graduates from the SMC who obtained their degrees during the period the NAB registered it are still valid.

The Executive Director of the NAB, Mr Kwame Dattey made this known in an interview on Joy FM Tuesday morning.

He was reacting to discussions on unaccredited institutions that have been dishing out honorary doctorate degrees to some prominent Ghanaians following a research work by two Ghanaian professors at the Valdosta State University in USA. 

Dr. Prosper Yao Tsikata and Dr. A. Kobla Dotse in their research work titled “The Accreditation Challenges in Transnational Educational Ecology: The Ghanaian Experience, An Investigative Report”, undertook investigations into how prominent Ghanaians earn honorary doctorate degrees and concluded that many of the private universities dishing out the degrees were unaccredited.

They drew the attention of  the Minister of Education to it arguing that, given that the individuals permeate all sectors of Ghanaian society, the effects of the influence will have dire consequences for Ghana, if their educational status was not checked and rectified.

Following from that there have been debates on how those degrees are earned and especially on social media, many have been mocking some of the personalities for going ahead to receive the honorary degrees from unaccredited institutions.

The assertions by the two professors specifically on the SMC has been challenged by the Alumni of SMC, which insisted that their institution has an international accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Business, Schools and Programs (ACBSP) which was globally recognized.

Read also: Fake doctorates: Swiss university has accreditation - SMC Alumni

SMC university status

“We do what we call registration for foreign institutions that operates in this country [Ghana] and before we register them we do due diligence on them,” Mr Dattey said on Joy FM.

Explaining, he said “The Swiss Management Centre was accredited by one of the accrediting agencies for business schools in the US [Accreditation Council for Business, Schools and Programs (ACBSP)]. They also had accreditation from the European Business School, so we registered them.” 

“Let me say that the registration also is not for an indefinite period. So when they came back for re-registration last year, we checked whether the condition under which they were registered were still valid and we found out that they were still accredited by the Association of Business Schools in the US but they were no longer accredited by the European Business Schools.”

“So what we have told them is that they should obtain accreditation from their native country [Switzerland] before we will do any business with them,” Mr Dattey emphasized.

He however stressed that for the period when they were registered with NAB, the credentials of graduates that came out of that school are still valid.

“We also gave them three years because we recognise that they have students already in the system, so we extended the registration for three years for those already enrolled on their programmes. But they are not supposed to enroll fresh students until they have complied with what they are supposed to do,” he said.

Asked why the NAB went ahead and registered the SMC when it was not accredited in Switzerland in the first place, Mr Dattey responded: “Our information then was that the Swiss accrediting body do not accredit institutions that want to offer programmes outside of Switzerland.” 

How are foreign institutions registered?

“We look at accreditation from their home country …when a foreign institution wants to incorporate in Ghana, we do some due diligence on them by checking their accrediting status in their home country and elsewhere.”

He said it was also not automatic that as soon as you bring it then you get it, “we look at for instance how are you going to operate, be it a distance learning centre, who are going to teach, which premises and we do inspections of all of that.”

Advice 

With regards to unaccredited institutions operating in Ghana and dishing out Honorary Doctorate degrees to prominent Ghanaians, Mr Dattey said most of the institutions mentioned were not operating in Ghana.

“They come here periodically, identify some prominent people in society, and confer the honorary degrees on them. And we have come out several times in the newspapers and on our website to forewarn the public that these institutions are unaccredited in their home countries and people should not expose themselves to ridicule by first accepting such honorary degrees.”

He said anybody who wants to enroll on any programme both locally and outside should check with the accreditation board and also appealed to employers to also collect credentials of potential employees and check with the accreditation board before engaging them.

He said there are some institutions like the Police Service and Armed Forces that do that often.

Responding to the registration status of the London Graduate School which recently approached Daily Graphic reporter Mabel Aku Baneseh to confer an honorary degree on her, should she accept to pay $4,000 for a two day seminar in Accra, Mr Dartey said, “I don’t know anything about them. As I sit here, I don’t know anything about them.”

Click to download full report of the research here

Writer’s email: [email protected]

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Click here to download a response by the UPSA on the research work by the two Ghanaian professors 

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