THE status of more than 120,000 existing third level awards could be undermined by the new Irish National Certification Authority, Teastas, according to the National Council for Educational Awards.
Teastas will be responsible for the establishment, supervision and regulation of all national qualifications, apart from those at second level and university level.
Its interim board published its first report yesterday.
The report proposes the reorganisation of six bodies - the NCEA, FAS, Teagasc, CERT, the National Council for Vocational Awards and the National Tourism Certification Board.
It is proposed that the NCEA and the NCVA will be reconstituted as sub boards of Teastas, although the report notes that it is "neither desirable nor necessary to have such sub boards on a permanent basis".
The NCEA's acting director, Mr Seamus Puirseil, said the model proposed ignored "the authority and value of the NCEA's validating role and could have a detrimental effect on the 124,000 parchments issued since 1973."
The president of the Dublin Institute of Technology, Dr Brendan Goldsmith, described the report as "very disappointing", and said it was not what the institute had been expecting.
"We had been campaigning for degree awarding powers and certainly at no stage was it suggested that these powers should be subject to approval by an outside body such as Teastas," he said. The DIT's aim continued to be its designation as a university, under the rem it of the Higher Education Authority, Dr Goldsmith added.
The report also recommends the establishment of a single Regional Technical College awards body to. act on behalf of a consortium of RTCs. This body would be placed on a statutory fooling in the long term. Dr Sean McDonagh, director of Dundalk RTC and chairman of the council of directors of RTCs, welcomed the fact that the RTC and DIT sectors were now part of a "binary" system which would give a necessary diversity to the Irish higher education system.
The report was also welcomed by the Union of Students in Ireland, but with reservations. "Our key concern is that issues of quality assurance are addressed and that the quality of degrees [is] guaranteed for students and graduates from affected institutions," said USI's education officer, Mr Malcolm Byrne.
Government sources said the aim was for consultation with FAS, CERT, Teagasc and the NTCB about the inclusion of their certification processes and expert staff into Teastas to be completed by the autumn, with its implementation by spring 1998.