By Gurbir Singh:
Reputation of New Zealand’s tertiary education received another setback in the eyes of Indian students when NZQA today withdrew accreditation of four business courses of the International College of Auckland (ICA) for “poor quality teaching.”
Out of 82 students affected by this decision,80 are from India.
NZQA has withdrawn the accreditation due to “quality assurance concerns” relating to four programmes: NZIM Diploma in Management (Level 5), NZIM Diploma in Management (Advanced) (Level 6), National Diploma in Business (Level 5) and New Zealand Diploma in Business (Level 6).
NZQA has imposed conditions on two other courses of ICA – New Zealand Diploma in Business (Level 5) and Diploma in Business (Level 7), and will continue to monitor these programmes for quality assurance.
In a statement released today, Grant Klinkum, NZQA’s Deputy Chief Executive, Quality Assurance, said, “Routine monitoring by NZQA identified quality assurance issues in relation to ICA’s assessment and moderation of these programmes. As a result of these issues, ICA has opted to undertake a voluntary withdrawal of its accreditation of these courses with the assistance of NZQA”.
”NZQA is working to transfer students to a high-quality tertiary education organisation who will provide a full package of learning and support,” Klinkum said.
Zhaoxin (James) Zhu, principal of ICA who founded the college in 2001, today reportedly offered his apologies to students for not offering the students “proper teaching.”
“Passing was too easy…students who were supposed not to pass and there are some lecturers who let them pass, I totally agree with their (NZQA) decision”, he is quoted to have said.
Education in New Zealand is a $4.5 billion industry. It has been rocked by closure of five private training establishments (PTEs) by NZQA in the past one year, and recent allegations of corruption, fraud in the Indian student industry.
