THE HIGHER Education Authority (HEA) has warned students about a college based at Cornelscourt, Dublin, which is not officially recognised.
The HEA said the Distance Learning Accreditation Council (DLAC), which claims to offer diplomas to Irish learners, has no official standing.
"It is not recognised by the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland, the State body that oversees education qualifications in Ireland."
The HEA pointed out that the college shares an address with a number of other unrecognised education institutions such as the National Training Authority, ITEC and National College of Communications and the Open College, all based at Cornelscourt, Dublin 18.
The HEA said it is working with the Department of Education and Science, the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI), the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (Hetac) and the Irish Universities Association in seeking a means to address the issue of unrecognised institutions operating or purporting to operate out of Ireland.
The HEA strongly advises intending students to carefully review the accreditation of any intended course of study, options, including consultation of the list of NQAI recognised qualifications (via www.nqai.ie or www.nqf.ie), Hetac (www.hetac.ie) or the course listings available at Qualifax, Ireland's national learners' database (www.qualifax.ie).
The warning is the latest controversy about unrecognised third-level colleges. While the HEA has the power to control any institution describing itself as a "university", its power to control the name of other third-level colleges is limited.
DLAC did not respond to queries yesterday from The Irish Times. According to its website, the "aim of DLAC is to promote quality in open learning, distance learning, e-learning, correspondence and home study in this country".
