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Johnathan Paoli
The Department of Higher Education and Training has officially announced its deregistration of several educational institutions owned by Educor, including Damelin College, City Varsity, Lyceum colleges and Icesa City Campus.
The closure of the popular institutions will have a huge impact on thousands of students who have already registered with them and now have to find alternative places to study.
The Department’s DG Nkosinathi Sishi confirmed on Monday that the institutions have been deregistered due to their failure to submit annual financial statements for the years 2021 and 2022, as well as their non-compliance with legal requirements.
The affected institutions are owned by Educor, which claims to be the largest providers of private tertiary instruction in the country, with many of its programs offered through distance learning.
Deregistered institutions are required legally to inform students within 14 days, provide academic transcripts, reimburse students unable to access education, and make arrangements for affected students to complete their programs at alternative institutions.
In 2022 the Department made known its intentions to deregister Educor Colleges for failing to submit their audited annual statement. It also said a year ago it would deregister some programmes at Damelin College.
However, Educor denied the Department’s assertions at the time.
Veli Mbele, the spokesperson for the Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande said the department had experienced significant problems with Educor Colleges and had received many complaints from students at Intec College and Damelin Correspondence College.
Lyceum was evicted from the campus in Woodmead late last year after allegedly owing more than R2 million to Adcorp.
Adcorp Group’s general counsel and company secretary Lisa Laporte said that Lyceum had continued to occupy the premises unlawfully until it left at the beginning of November, and Adcorp had requested the Department to investigate the matter.
“As of 10 August 2023, the sublease agreement between Adcorp and Lyceum was canceled pursuant to unremedied breach for non-payment by Lyceum of rental and other direct expenses,” Laporte said.
Mbele said in January this year the Council on Higher Education withdrew the accreditation of nine of Lyceum’s programmes; including diplomas in fleet managements; and higher certificates in credit management, financial management, fleet management, human resource management, marketing and sales management, public relations, small business management and supply chain management.
With regard to Damelin, a certificate issued by the Department on 12 December 2022 stated that the college may not market and have new intakes in a number of programmes pending the ruling of the high court on the withdrawal of accreditation for programmes including higher certificates in PC engineering, bachelor of commerce in information management and diplomas in financial accounting, HR, journalism and media studies.
The impact remains significant considering thousands of students will need to find alternative places to study, as the institutions mentioned will have no choice but to close by the end of the year.
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