The Higher Education Authority (HEA) says it is committed to ensuring that the quality of education in higher institutions of learning is not compromised by penalising institutions that fail to adhere to regulations.
HEA Director General, Kazhila Chinsembu has since underscored the need for the authority to strengthen and stiffen laws and regulations for higher learning institutions to follow in the country.
He observes that if the higher institutions of learning are not scrutinised to ensure that they operate according to the laws and regulations, the country risks paying a heavy price by having unqualified graduates.
ZANIS reports that speaking at a press briefing on the higher education general regulations of 2024 in Lusaka today, Professor Chinsembu said higher education of learning institutions should not be driven by profit, but put the interest of the country first.
“if we fail to rethink and revise the permissible parameters in which the private sector should provide university education, we risk having a cadre of human resource that are half baked,”
Professor Chinsembu explained that if the country fails to check out the said institutions to operate professionally, no meaningful development can be attained.
He said the past decade, was an era characterised by the mushrooming of corner-shop universities due to weak regulations and that time has come to punish institutions that fail to adhere to new regulations.
Professor Chinsembu observed that the registration of new private higher education institutions is at a crossroads as it has reached a critical juncture and must be addressed urgently.
“As HEA, it is within our mandate to provide the turning point, it is our duty to tighten the screws of regulation. We have now put the entire system of higher education under the microscope,” he said.
He added that a university is not a shopping mall, or a bazaar for degrees, and that the authority gets worried when degrees in some of the universities are easily obtained.
“The nation is questioning the competencies and proficiencies of our graduates. Public outcry over the quality of many of our graduates has reached a deafening crescendo,” Professor Chinsembu observed.
And HEA Acting Manager, Standards, Research and Instructional Audits, Denny Nsokolo said the authority has tightened the mode of registration for a university.
He said under the new regulations of 2024, the University is required to start as a college and operate for five years before it is registered as a university.
Mr Nsokolo said the authority has devised new stiffer penalties for any university which flouts the regulations.
He disclosed that currently there are 160 higher learning institutions in the country which must be highly regulated under the new laws and regulations.
Earlier, HEA Quality Assurance Director, Martin Mushumba noted that the mandate of the authority is to ensure strict adherence to quality by higher learning institutions in the country.
He stated that quality assurance must remain a bedrock of the HEA, and that it will not take lightly institutions that will operate outside the prescribed confines of the law.
