Damelin, City Varsity and Lyceum deregistered

The Department of Higher Education cancelled the registration of Damelin College, CityVarsity, Lyceum colleges, and Icesa City Campus  for not submitting annual financial statements.

DEREGISTERING DAMELIN, CITYVARSITY, AND LYCEUM COLLEGES

The director-general of the Department of Higher Education, Nkosinathi Sishi,cancelled the registration of Damelin College, CityVarsity,and Icesa City Campus on Friday.

This action was taken as they had failed to submit annual financial statements in 2021 or 2022, nor had they complied with the law.

According to MyBroadband, Educor, based in Pinetown, owns these private tertiary institutions, which it claims to be the largest provider of private tertiary instruction in South Africa, much of it being distance-based.

Educor is said to have been facing financial difficulties since 2020 competes with JSE-listed firms AdvTech and Stadio.

The gazette also stated the private tertiary providers failed to fulfil the responsibilities of a private higher education institution as outlined in regulations.

According to the regulations for the registration of private higher education institutions under the Higher Education Act, once an institution has been deregistered, it must notify all students within 14 days and provide them with transcripts of their academic achievements, additionally they have to reimburse students for the education they could not access.

According to MyBroadband, minister Blade Nzimande recently told the Daily Maverick that Educor institutions were under investigation as the department has received many complaints from students from the Damelin College.

Last Month Daily Maverick had reported that the Council on Higher Education, a government quality assurance body, had withdrawn accreditation for nine Lyceum diplomas.

It was also stated that seven Damelin diplomas, one Damelin higher certificate, and one degree were unable to enroll new students pending the outcome of a court case.

EDUCOR IN THE DEEP END

Higher education authorities have revealed that a large-scale probe is underway into colleges owned by Educor Holdings.

This action follows the eviction of its subsidiary, Lyceum College, from its premises in Woodmead, Sandton, by landlord Adcorp Management Services late last year.

According to the Daily Maverick Mbele said the department had experienced significant problems with Educor colleges and had received many complaints from students at Intec College and Damelin Correspondence College.

With regard to Damelin, a certificate issued by the department on 12 December 2022 states the college may not market and have new intakes in a number of programmes pending the ruling of the high court on the withdrawal of accreditation for these programmes.

These programmes are:

• Higher certificates in PC Engineering;
• Bachelor of Commerce in Information Management; and
• Diplomas in Financial Accounting, HR, Journalism and Media Studies, Marketing Management, Office Management, Public Administration, Public Relations and Travel and Tourism.