A public notice circulated by the Botswana Qualifications Authority(BQA) during January 2018 shows that Public Higher Education Providers including UB, who some stakeholders believed were not registered and accredited were properly registered under the BQA Act.
The University of Botswana(UB) like other public institutions is due to transition to new system as prescribed in the Amendments of the BQA Regulations, 2017. Their learning programmes are therefore valid for offer during the transition.
“Learners enrolled in the currently registered learning programmes leading to qualifications that commenced before the coming into effect of the new BQA Regulations shall complete their studies and their qualifications will be recognised.”
The list of accredited ETP’s including University of Botswana(UB) are as follows:
1 Bamalete Lutheran School Of Nursing
2 Botswana Accountancy College
3 Botswana Open University (former BOCCODOL)
4 Botswana College Of Engineering & Technology
5 Botswana International University Of Science And Technology 6 Botswana University Of Agriculture & Natural Resources
7 Botswana Wildlife Training Institute
8 Defence Command And Staff College,Botswana Defence Force
9 Francistown College Of Education
10 Francistown College Of Technical & Vocational Education
11 Gaborone Technical College
12 Institute Of Development Management
13 Institute Of Health Sciences – Francistown
14 Institute Of Health Sciences – Lobatse
15 Institute Of Health Sciences – Gaborone
16 Institute Of Health Sciences – Molepolole
17 Institute Of Health Sciences – Serowe
18 Kanye Seventh Day Adventist College Of Nursing
19 Maun Technical College
20 Molepolole College Of Education
21 Oodi College Of Applied Arts & Technology
22 Serowe College Of Education
23 Tlokweng College Of Education
24 Tonota College Of Education
25 University Of Botswana
The University of Botswana(UB) it has emerged has already applied for registration and accreditation under the BQA Act like other ETP’s and is not being given preferential treatment. Public institutions under the old Act were expected to register and not accredit.
UB was registered by the Tertiary Education Council(TEC) and so were its learning programmes like other public high education providers like BUAN, BIUST and BAC.
It has also been indicated that trainers at brigades under old Act were also registered and granted scope of accreditation. This scope of accreditation would indicate at what level you could teach based on your qualifications and experience. According to BQA officials this was applied across the board.
If the trainers at brigades under the old Act had certain shortcomings they were granted provisional accreditation and advised to address deficiencies within a three year time frame.
This clarification by BQA officials follows an article by this publication on an ETP workshop hosted by BQA at Tlotlo Hotel and conference centre on the 31st July 2018 where stakeholders voiced factual inaccuracies published by this publication relating to registration and accreditation process.
The objectives of the stakeholder consultations were to update Technical and Vocational Education and Training Providers (Conventional) on developments within BQA Regulatory environment and finalise some key instruments before the end of the transitional period into the new Act.
The Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) is a parastatal under the Ministry of Tertiary Education Research Science and Technology established to provide for and maintain the National Credit and Qualifications Framework and to coordinate the education, training and skills development quality assurance system, from early childhood to tertiary level (Lifelong learning).
