Students warned to check university programmes before enrolling
With some universities operating substandard programmes, the Office of Higher Education Commission (Ohec) is strongly advising students to “check first” to avoid regretting their choices later.
“Before you choose to enrol in any programme, you should check with Ohec website to determine if programme you are interested in has any ‘issues’,” Ohec secretary general Supat Champathong said yesterday.
Early this year, the Ohec announced that 182 programmes offered by 40 universities had failed the Internal Quality Assurance standards for the number and qualifications of university lecturers.
Involved universities have since reported to the Ohec that they have cancelled 56 of these programmes, stopped enrolling new students for 24 other programmes, are in the process of improving 48 programmes, and have merged six of the problematic programmes with others to comply with standards.
“There are no reports on what universities have done with the 48 other programmes found to have problems,” Supat said. The universities had been required to report progress by April 30.
Supat said his agency would try to monitor the universities and the substandard programmes they had vowed to improve.
“But for now, students should check the programmes that still have issues, so as to make informed decisions about where to further their study,” he said.