STILL WAITING FOR DIPLOMAS

SEVENTY-NINE students from a local private college are still in limbo about their qualifications despite having graduated three years ago.

This is because their diploma in Biomedical Science from the college has not been accredited by the Malaysia Qualifications Agency (MQA).

Magizhchi Malaysia Welfare Organisation president Derall Denall, in championing the cause of the affected students, said the students enrolled in the course in 2011 and completed their studies in 2014.

“However, they couldn’t receive their certification because MQA did not accredit the course,” he said.

He said the students had demanded the college take responsibility in how its actions had deprived the students of their diploma.

“However, the college has now been taken over by a new management which has nothing to do with the application for MQA accreditation.

“The students just want to get their diploma and compensation from the college,” he said.

Derall said it was unfair to put the students in this predicament.

“They were hopeful and wanted to pursue their dreams by taking the course, but are now disappointed because of the accreditation issue,” he said.

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MQA senior director Soo Sit Chuan said the college did not get the full accreditation for the diploma course as it failed to submit the necessary documents.

When met, he said the college should ideally send in documents for the full accreditation seven months before students’ final examination.

“It is very important for colleges to meet all the requirements that is set by MQA to get the full accreditation.

“Otherwise, as seen from this case, the students suffer.

“This particular college received its ‘provisional accreditation’ and was given ample time to provide us with the documents to get the full accreditation,” he said.

Soo said provisional accreditation was a “candidacy assessment” to determine the strength of the curriculum to be offered and the readiness of its delivery support system before it was offered to the public.

“Provisional accreditation is granted with a validity period to a particular programme.

“The programme is required to undergo a full accreditation exercise prior to the expiry of the validity period,” he said.

He said each course varied in requirements for the full accreditation.

“An accreditation is a formal recognition that a certificate, diploma or degree programme has attained the quality standards and criteria set by MQA.

“The college was already given time to provide us with the documents and we had to make the decision not to approve its application,” added Soo.

He advised parents and students interested in pursuing their studies to check if the course had received the MQA accreditation.

“The public can visit our headquarters at Menara PKNS in Petaling Jaya or check at http://www2.mqa.gov.my.”