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Fin24 reports that four months after the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) announced it was deregistering four colleges owned by the private education provider Educor, worried staff and students remain uncertain about their future.
In March, former DHET Minister Blade Nzimande said his department had cancelled the registration of Educor-run institutions City Varsity, Damelin, ICESA City Campus and Lyceum College. The four colleges, which together have around 13,000 students, had become "dysfunctional", he claimed. The minister said that his department had received numerous complaints about poor teaching quality, lack of student support, and the non-payment or underpayment of staff salaries. A few weeks after Nzimande's announcement, it was reported that Nedbank was seeking to liquidate one of Educor’s property arms over millions of rands in unpaid loans. The case is ongoing. But, there is no clarity about when Educor's courses will be phased out. According to an educator linked to Educor, teaching is still happening at many of the institutions, which continue to advertise for new students on their websites and social media. "Educor has failed to be transparent, and this lack of openness has affected the staff and students. Students have not been informed of any [new] developments," the source indicated. The educator stressed that Educor could at least have publicly clarified that qualifications from its institutions remained valid. But Educor has not made any public statements at all, since Nzimande announced that the four institutions had to refund students and cease operations by the end of the academic year. The DHET also did not answer questions about whether the four institutions had lodged appeals, or when the phase-out period to stop teaching needed to end.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Cronje at Fin24
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