Students warned of ‘bogus’ college
A private Braamfontein college owner has denied that the institution is run illegally.
|||Braamfontein - The owner of a private college in Braamfontein has defended his right to run it, saying allegations that he is doing so illegally are false and misleading.
This came after the Department of Higher Education and Training’s Shaheeda Essack confronted Mbighor Mighty on Wednesday about the legitimacy of Johannesburg City College. The institution purports to offer diplomas and degrees.
Essack and her team have been in Braamfontein handing out flyers to passers-by, warning them about bogus colleges.
According to her, any institution of higher learning that offers diplomas and degrees needs to be registered with the department, but Mighty’s is not.
Despite this, Mighty denied operating illegally and claims he offers experiential learning or “learning for work at work through work”.
Mighty said the department had told him he did not need to register because he was offering non-credited programmes, in other words, programmes not on the National Qualifications Framework.
“I have a letter from the department which says that not all colleges have to register. It is written under the South African Qualifications Authority document for criteria and guidelines for short courses and skills programmes that there are two types of programmes that people can offer, credit bearing and non-credit bearing,” he said.
“Accreditation and registration come when you want to offer credit-bearing qualifications.
“It is written that if you offer non-credit-bearing qualifications it becomes a private negotiation between you and the client.”
However, Essack said the fact that Mighty was offering diplomas and degrees meant he had to register with them as a private higher institution, regardless of the fact that he claims to offer work-based learning.
“Workplace learning happens in a place of work, in an industry, in a factory, it can’t happen in a setting like this. We come here every year and somehow Mr Mighty has been able to get students.
“As the department that is paid by the taxpayer to protect the students, we have to come out to educate the public, and we will do that.
“We won’t be intimidated and threatened by anybody,” she said.
Essack and her team then confronted another college operating from the seventh floor of the same building - the College for Business and Maritime Studies.
The college has been operating since 2000 and purports to offer courses accredited by an international body based in the UK.
Essack told students this college too was not registered and not allowed to advertise to prospective students.
The college’s chairman, Horst Schonfeld, said it was in the process of being registered.
Essack said other colleges that were not registered to give diplomas and degrees were the London School of Business, which is based in Sandton, as well as the Isibani College in the CBD.
botho.molosankwe@inl.co.za
The Star
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