THIRD LEVEL qualifications may be downgraded under the proposals put forward by the national education and training certification body, TEASTAS, in its recent interim report, according to USI.
USI's education officer, Malcolm Byrne, said TEASTAS has not sufficiently set out guarantees to ensure the quality and recognition of awards from third level institutions. His comments followed a meeting, last week of students' unions from those USI affiliated colleges that now receive NCEA approved qualifications.
At present, the NCEA is responsible for the certification of awards in third level colleges outside the university sector; it is proposed that this responsibility will shift to TEASTAS. The NCEA and the NCVA would then become temporary sub boards of TEASTAS before their eventual abolition.
"TEASTAS does not propose any distinction between higher education and training, and the discussion of quality assurance issues in the report is unclear," Byrne said. This could result in the downgrading of degrees, diplomas and certificates obtained at institutions such as the DIT, the RTCs, the NCIR and some private colleges, he warns.
USI also expresses concern about continuing recognition of exiting NCEA qualifications, and describes as "strange" the proposal to include the Institutes of Technology in TEASTAS's remit, despite the fact that they will have the power to award their own degrees.
"USI realises that the report is only the first from TEASTAS, but it is not convinced that the new body will guarantee the quality of higher education graduates' awards," Byrne said.
Last month, the chairman of TEASTAS, Dick Langford told E&L that the implementation of the proposals would be done "in the context of protecting the currency and credibility of existing qualifications".
USI's fears echo those of the NCEA, which has said that the TEASTAS proposals will bring chaos to the third level system. According to the NCEA, the TEASTAS plan to weaken the distinction between education and training - effectively the difference between third level and more general vocational qualifications - threatens those already holding NCEA approved qualifications as well as those who will in future receive qualifications through TEASTAS.
The TEASTAS proposals are unlikely to be presented as legislation until 1998 at the earliest, assuming they remain in their current form in the face of opposition from the NCEA, USI, the DIT and certain RTCs.
