By Gurbir Singh, Hamilton (New Zealand) Oct 11, 2017:
Reputation of New Zealand’s $4.5 billion education industry received another blow with the withdrawal of accreditation of business courses of the International College of Auckland (ICA) today for “poor quality of teaching.”
Eighty students, out of total 82, are from India and have now been affected by this decision as ICA can not deliver these programmes.
New Zealand Qualification Authority has withdrawn the accreditation due to quality assurance concerns relating to four programmes offered by ICA: NZIM Diploma in Management (Level 5), NZIM Diploma in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).
Two other courses of ICA - New Zealand Diploma in Business (Level 5) and Diploma in Business (Level 7) are now subject to conditions and NZQA will continue to monitor these programmes.
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 has contacted the affected students of these programmes and they are being supported.
”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 “we haven't offered 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."
In the last one year, NZQA has cancelled the registration of four private training establishments which catered to international students. This was to ensure that quality education is delivered by tertiary education organisations.
Enrolment of students from India is already showing a downward trend with changing immigration policies, and tarnished image of Indian student industry in New Zealand.
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Gurbir Singh is a New Zealand-based freelance Journalist & Feature Writer. He can be contacted at: gurbir@journalist.com You can also like him on Facebook