Kuwait Times

Published Date: July 21, 2009

KUWAIT: A Ministry of Education (MoE) committee formed to look into the suspension of the accreditation of a number of Indian and Filipino universities has reportedly issued a preliminary decision to transfer the students at these institutions to other accredited universities abroad. According to a ministry official, the students previously enrolled at the discredited universities will now be transferred to accredited universities in other countries. The official said that the committee had been discussing
the issue of students affected by the problem, many of whom had had their graduations delayed due to the withdrawal of accreditation from their places of study.

Students who were given official permission to attend the disaccredited universities are eligible by law for compensation and other help, although other students who did not receive prior official permission to attend them will not be eligible for any assistance or compensation.

The ministry is committed to finding a solution for all the affected students, said the official, adding that the committee is set to hold a number of meetings before arriving at a final solution which can be presented to the Minister of Education.

Meanwhile, Dr. Awadh Al-Ghareebah, the head of the Teaching Staff Members' Association, said that a large number of Kuwait University (KU) academics had long refused to recognize the universities whose accreditation had been suspended by the previous education minister, citing these institutions' lack of even the minimum educational standards as their reason.

Al-Ghareebah also said that graduates of these universities have been competing unequally and illegally with KU graduates, based on the fact that the former received degree certificates without doing any hard work, while KU students are required to work hard and reach the highest academic levels in order to "earn" their certificates.

Al-Ghareebah said that the graduates with degrees from the discredited universities could harm Kuwait's manpower sector because their lack of practical knowledge and worthless qualifications would make them unfit for any skilled jobs, reported Al-Qabas. This would negatively affect the working patterns of any workplace they were employed in, which in turn would have a negative effect on the rest of society, he insisted. they would be working in, would also would reflect in harm to the whole society, he in
sisted.

The senior education official further put most of the blame for this issue on the Ministry of Higher Education for failing to set uniform standards for higher education institutions abroad. He also put part of the blame on the ministry's failure to provide the large number of Kuwaiti high school graduates with a suitable range of degree programs inside the country, saying that KU offers a limited number of places, while the tuition fees at the country's private universities are too high for most students'
families to afford them.