Unaccredited higher education programmes

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) wishes to warn prospecting students to be aware of a scam by a Johannesburg based private higher institution that charges unsuspecting students exorbitant amounts of money for illegal and unaccredited bachelors’ qualifications.

Recent DHET investigations have established that the Fashion Academy Network (Pty) Ltd – operating from Illovo – is purporting to offer the Bachelor of Fashion Degree even after it was issued with a letter of warning in June last year for the illegal provision of higher education programmes.

According to the order, the college was instructed to terminate their unlawful activities with immediate effect and reimburse all affected students.

Whilst giving the Department the assurance that it is complying with the order, it has now emerged that – in anticipation of accreditation with the Council on Higher Education (CHE) – the Fashion Academy Network (Pty) Ltd claims to retrospectively award the Bachelor of Fashion Degree.

Students are charged fees in the region of R80 000.00 a year for a qualification the college is not registered to offer. The institution has misrepresented itself to the CHE by claiming that the Department has given it permission to operate and offer its Degree under the pretext of a non-degree programme. The Department wishes to confirm that this peddling of information is mischievous and warns students to be aware.

The Department wishes to reiterate that students should first verify information with the DHET website to ascertain the legality of any programme offered by the institution of their choice before enrolling in order to avoid falling prey to illegal operations.

The website address is www.dhet.gov.za/Resources/Registers. Alternatively they can forward their queries to:

registrarphei@dhet.gov.za

registrarfet@dhet.gov.za and

callcentre@dhet.gov.za.

Supplied by DHET