Clique, Avid colleges penalised for running courses illegally
Clique college has never taken permission for any programme to offer online courses, but continues to conduct classes online.
By
Ahmed Mizyal
The Maldives Qualifications Authority (MQA) has taken action against Clique College and Avid College for running illegal courses.
MQA started investigating the two colleges after receiving complaints about the courses offered there. Action was taken against the two colleges under the Program Accreditation Rules.
Details of the action taken by MQA against Clique and Avid College have been published in the government gazette on Sunday. The MQA audit has identified many and serious issues about the two colleges.
Avid College
The main complaint about Avid College was that some lecturers would not mark the students' examination papers for not being paid their salaries. As a result, the duration of the program had to be extended and students had to pay more for the extended duration.
Following the complaint, the MQA conducted a 'random batch audit' of seven Avid College programs and found a number of violations of program accreditation rules and guidelines. These include:
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Programs are not operating in accordance with the given program accreditation; accredited programs have not met the contact hours, students submitted tutorials to the college, the lecturers did not look at the tutorials and gave results and attendance to the students without meeting the contact hours
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A request was made by MQA on June 5 to examine the attendance sheets and salary sheets of part-time lecturers of the college to see if the contact hours of the programs had been met. The college had not complied, and did not respond to MQA requests to go and see
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The program structure that had been changed in accordance with the guidelines was accredited, but teaching is based on the previously approved program structure; modules are not conducted according to the program summary table
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Failure to submit the 'Before Commencement Form' within the required period
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The date of enrollment and intake date do not match and there is no proper system to keep track of students' attendance and result sheets
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Avid College informed the audit that an internal committee had assessed student examination papers as some lecturers would not, due to lack of salary. The MQA has questioned the results given to the students as it is not known whether the papers were marked by the lecturers
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Lack of a 'Learning Management System' as per the e-Learning Guidelines; along with that, there is a lack of adequate resources to teach programs as accredited under the e-learning modality and examine them under the e-learning delivery modality
The MQA met with the management of Avid College on May 5 to share the information. In addition, the MQA has repeatedly asked Avid College to improve its actions in violation of the national framework and program accreditation.
At the same time, the authority has decided not to grant accreditation and operating permits to Avid College for further programs.
With the measures, the status of accredited programs in the e-learning modality has been changed to 'Conditionally Accredited' for six months (from 28 July till 28 January). Any program approved under the e-learning modality can be advertised only after it is approved for full accreditation status.
“Despite the measures, the current batches of Avid College will continue and these measures will not affect the students,” the MQA said in a statement.
Clique College
The MQA says that it has not given permission to Clique College to conduct any program under the e-learning delivery modality.
However, during the pandemic, the MQA granted such general permission to conduct approved programs by all higher education institutions in Maldives. The permit was revoked on April 28, 2022, following the change in the COVID-19 situation.
In the past, Clique college has not taken permission for any programme to offer online courses and the special permission granted during COVID times had been revoked, so no programme will be allowed to operate that way anymore, MQA said.
Though the 'Bachelor of Business Management' programme run by the college was allowed in 2019 for physical classes and the same accreditation was given this year, the students have complained to the MQA that so far it is being run on an e-learning modality.
Some other programmes have been promoted by Clique College to follow suit and these issues were taken up by the MQA in a meeting with senior officials of the college on May 18.
The actions taken against Clique College over these issues were:
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Instruct to correct violations of the national qualifications framework and program accreditation
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A fine of MVR 10,000 for running an unaccredited higher education programme
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Instruct the program to stop
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Deny permission to issue certificates
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Public announcement of illegal programs
The measures will apply to all programs that have operated without accreditation authorization and Clique College will be held responsible for any losses suffered by students enrolled in those programs, according to the MQA announcement.
