UNIVERSITY’S CHARTERED ACCREDITATION

           

In the European Union, the United States and other parts of the world, is an established fact that when a tertiary institution or professional organization is granted “Chartered” status she automatically becomes self-accrediting and independent. Consequently, she is at liberty from government accreditation stringent policy and  rules unlike other tertiary institutions and professional organizations as  such institution or professional organization  incorporates to operate under the terms and condition of the charter as an independent entity  like a Limited Liability Company or Corporation be it a “Legislative” or “Royal” Charter.

LEGISLATIVE CHARTER

Under the Legislative or Parliamentary Charter, a tertiary institution or professional organization  would be granted “Chartered” status by the national legislative arm of the government known in Nigeria as the National Assembly or House of Parliament (in cases of Parliamentary system of government like in Great Britain, Uganda, Israel and other parts of the world). Consequently, we have several “Chartered” organizations in Nigeria such as Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, Nigeria Institute of Management and several others and likewise  applicable in other parts of the world. Evidently, Clifford University – Owerrenta in Abia State is one of such Chartered institutions in Nigeria. 

The Chartered institution would pay the required termly dues (in every three years or more) to the government treasury and not based on termly accreditation and performance assessment unlike other none chartered tertiary institutions and professional organizations whose performance are assessed on termly basis based on the fact that the chartered institutions or professional organizations are independent entity like Limited Liability Company or Corporation and based on the fact that government policy on termly accreditation and assessment of the institution can change at any time through different administration of governance in this era of democracy quite unlike the legislative or royal chartered institutions. 

Consequently in Nigeria, most private universities are operating under the legislative charter instead which may not be seen as government accredited because most people are only familiar with government accreditation and not legislative or Royal Charter.

                                  ROYAL CHARTER

Like the Legislative Charter, the Monarch of a kingdom receives the termly dues from the chartered university officials and pays part of it in to the government treasury that grant the Monarch the autonomy based on the approval of the House of Parliament or Legislature.

It is a common known fact that the Monarch is the king of a kingdom within a country whose kingdom becomes a subnational government with an autonomy granted by the national legislative body being an integral part of the country and not as an independent nation or state like Lesotho in South Africa whose autonomy was granted to her by the defunct apartheid regime being a Parliamentary government prior to her democratic era.   

Consequently, the terms and conditions of the autonomy granted to her by her national legislature must also include her educational policy which must be in conformity with the national educational policy or similarly in case of foreign university affiliation in conformity with UNESCO rules.

Evidently, in the United Kingdom, most of her universities were granted either Parliamentary or Royal Charter like the University of London and several others including several advanced countries and across the globe.

Based on this development, in conformity with UNESCO rules, the European-American University dealing exclusively on secular courses (as a subsidiary of the Western Orthodox University), was granted  Royal Charter in 2012  by the Monarch  in Uganda who was granted autonomy by the House of Parliament as a sub national government of Uganda like  Lesotho of South Africa  in order to award degrees exclusively on secular courses to prospective students within the African countries at an affordable cost which would be higher if she uses the Parliamentary  or Royal Charter from any of the advanced countries with higher tax rates.

Based on the fact that the Monarch was granted the autonomy by the legislative arms of the Government of Uganda, the University degree awarded under the Royal Charter is recognized all over the world based on UNESCO rules like the Queen of England whose universities degrees awarded within her kingdom under the Royal Charter are recognized all over the world (as it is applicable in other parts of the world) whose universities operate as an independent entity under the Royal Charter as a sub national government of Great Britain to whom was granted  autonomy by the British House of  Parliament.

Based on the independent nature of “chartered” institution, the phrase “…accredited by...” (NUC or any other government accrediting agency) is no longer applicable to most private institutions after the charter had been granted by the legislature in collaboration with an accrediting agency. In most cases, only government owned institutions are synonymous with the phrase “accredited by….” which serve as an identity for government recognized institutions unlike the private institutions in order to minimize the high cost of termly accreditation and stringent rules and regulations whose cost of assessment and termly due is not subsided by the government quite unlike government owned institutions.  

Consequently, some people that are ignorant of chartered institutions rules and regulation would speculate that the institution is neither accredited nor recognized by government because it is no longer using the phrase “accredited by NUC” in case of Nigerian institutions.

However, it will interest you to know that there is no internationally acceptable standard for accreditation. Each country has its own standard for accreditation and varies from one State to another or from one Province to another in the same country based on the legislation of individual country. According to UNESCO rules, a degree from any country would be recognized in any part of the world irrespective of the standard of accreditation and curriculum used provided, the institution had been licensed and approved by the government in the country of origin to award degrees without discriminating against the type of government that rules be it Presidential, parliamentary or Monarch.    

Based on this development, both the Western Orthodox University and European-American University being her legal subsidiary, no longer associate with any national and international accrediting agency of any government either State or Federal and even in the Commonwealth of Dominica and Uganda based on the Royal Charter as it applies to other chartered institutions all over the world being legally an autonomous and independent institution having been incorporated under the charter.

University Dropout and Blackmail

Most university students involved in distance learning  programme dropout due to financial constraint and other factors not related to the school. Since the none traditional university distance learning  programme does not has specific  academic calendar quite unlike the traditional university, a dropout can on any day of the year start from where he or she stopped  as a continuous process.  Your semester begins from the date you enrolled. 

Prospective student seeking to enroll in a distance learning programme may be discouraged by some dropouts  who will hide their financial constrains and blackmailing about the management of the school instead; while others are graduating from the  very school on a yearly basis.

It is same as   some parent whose child enrolled in a primary school and after incurred some debts change over to another school and blackmailing about the former school  management and later  change over to the next school repeating the same blackmail until the child finishes the Primary School with huge debt on their head and unplayable.

On the contrary, some dropouts will tell the truth of their financial constraints hoping to continue whenever the economic situation improve while others will use blackmail for a cover up.

Dropout blackmail is common in the none traditional university distance learning programme unlike the traditional university where thousands of students enroll on a regular  basis unlike the former whose enrollment is considerably low in a given Study Center; therefore, may  face neglect and blackmail as some students expect to see crowd of students at the Center like in the Primary and Secondary School based on the fact that not every student attends lecture on the same day due to individual course difference, lecture days, time schedule which varies from one student to another; while most students receive lectures at home or office and not at the Study Center which reduce the number of attendance at the Center. . Consequently, most students become discouraged at their first attendance as do not see good number of student attending lectures with them and may assume that the school is fake.   

In another development, a prospective students seeking to enroll in a distance learning programme may be discouraged by fellow student who later secured good job  and start earning good salary or secure a sponsor; may no longer participate and would like to attend a traditional university’s part-time programme instead for a pride and may go out blackmailing about the  former distance learning programme attended.

Based on assessment, most people earning good salary at the place of work, do ignore the none traditional university distance learning programme but would engage in a traditional university programme on a part-time basis for a pride. But those  not earning enough or without a sponsor would endeavor to enroll in the none traditional distance learning  programme  in order to upgrade their academic qualification and to  earn a  better pay package like others including those that are self-employed running successful businesses may not bother to earn  the traditional university degree  rather would embrace the none traditional university degree programme instead because it gives them time to run their own  business; some receive  lectures at home or read on their own at any convenient time.

Based on this development, prospective students seeing to enroll in a none traditional university programme should seek advice from the school authorities, the current students of the school and those that had successful graduated from the school and not from the dropouts or those graduated from the traditional universities; either of them may give you wrong advice to discourage you.

Those already enrolled in the none traditional university distance learning programme do encourage one another until they all graduated depending on the individual years of study.

Some of those good salary earners will be procrastinating of attending part-time traditional university distance learning progrmme and ignoring the none traditional university programme; but as the year progresses, their financial burden also increased and can no longer afford it until they retire with the same qualification and same salary grade level and later regret as pensioner only earning about half of his or her monthly salary specially those in the Niger Delta region. 

Only some of them would throw away their pride and enroll in the none traditional university’s distance learning programme and earning degree from one lever to another with a high salary grade level which will reflect on his or her monthly pension and securing good jobs and gain promotions at the place of work like those in the South-West and South-East regions dominating the labour market specially in the oil rich Niger Delta region.                     

The Increasing Demand for Freelance Jobs with Degrees

The “Stay at Home and Work” jobs are  now on the increase ; virtually Ninety percent of the office jobs are going online in the advancement of computer and  internet  technology which is based on the following factors: As inflation increases in most countries  due to the ever growing populations, companies can no longer afford workers wages  and other associated cost. Consequently, advanced computer technology takes over most of those offline office job and perform online instead at a very reduced cost   compare to the traditional office offline cost.

Most jobs are contracted or giving out to be performed online by the  “Stay at Home” workers living in most remote  countries through the computer with fast internet access, who get paid on the completion of each job assignment without any national labour  law infringement .

Most Freelance jobbers are either paid on every two weeks or on a monthly basis depending on the number of jobs assignment completed and the total amount involved against each assignment.. Some are paid on hourly basis while others are on monthly basis.

                       Degree qualification and Professional Skills

The Freelancer should be a graduate with a Degree qualification   or equivalent  - At  least with  a Bachelor or professional qualification equivalent. Must have good track record of past completed assignments. Those awarding   the jobs are known as “Contractors’ and those taking over the assignment   are known as “Freelancers” depending on the management of individual platform designed for the Freelance jobs.

These Contractors consider the educational and professional background of each Freelancer before awarding the assignment.

This is where the Foreign Degree Comparability comes to play a key role regarding the foreign degrees awarded to the Freelancer which is used as a benchmark to determine who among   the Freelancers is qualified for the job judging from the educational and professional background. Most of these online jobs  are offered by the developed countries and would considers graduates with relevant degree equivalent based on their national standard while the Freelance may reside in any part of the world.

The Contractor places his job offer on the platform and the Freelancer place his bid quoting the amount  he or she wishes to earn  on the assignment and the former select from among the bidders (Freelancers) and chose the most qualified among them and assigns  the job. But in most cases, the Contractor may award the job assignment to be done by the higher bidder based on qualification and professional background and subsequent job completed.  So the degree equivalent and professional qualification counts so much  in the online freelance job.

Although Freelancer charge very less but loosing the bidding to the qualified bidder instead. While some Contractors that cannot afford high fees choose from the less bidders with considerable professional qualification and past completed assignment.

       

                      Professional Fees

Some platforms online demand your bidding on the job assignment  - for you to quote  your preferred fee; while others quote the amount  you will be paid on each job assignment with submission deadlines.

                         Type of Assignments

The types of assignment are articles writing jobs and most preferably computer related assignments including technical drawings. Therefore student must have a university degree on same or any discipline but with specific professional job skill .

                       Our Professional Support

Prospective students should enroll with us for degree on relevant course or in any discipline while at the same time he or she should enroll for part-time computer training for the online job skill required required; we shall send you list of websites of Freelance platforms and the most preferable courses on those  skill that Contractors are always looking for to assign.

Consequently, you stay at home and work online and earning wages in hard currencies like a company or staff. .

Our online support is free of charge to our registered students  based on several years of our  freelance job experience. This professional support is from the Management of Delcan Distance Learning Consult and not from European American University or Western Orthodox University 

Affiliate Commissions: Reason Why University’s Fees Vary

Most universities engaged in distance learning program appoint Affiliates responsible for providing tuitions and collections of fees from prospective students and remit payment to the institutions after deducting their commissions as contained in the contract signed by both parties.

The institutions would normally give  a considerable rate to all affiliates but the cost of  tuition and other fees  charged by individual Affiliate vary greatly from one Center  to another based on economic factor.  

Like most products and services in the market place, wherever the demand is high, the price also will be high. The high demand to earn a foreign degree makes the cost  higher in some Affiliate Centers than others.  Areas of high demand are those that are densely populated and with busy commercial activities and full of industries and people looking for job opportunities and promotions at job places  and at the same time others are looking for job opportunities overseas in order to earn hard currency.

 Take for example, the link to Europe by sea route  is the Mediterranean  sea linking Libya and Italy and you can see the thousands of people including both women and children drowned in the Mediterranean  Sea every year and yet the rush continue; many are embarking on  such dangerous journey caring  along  their certificates in order to secure foreign  jobs.

Consequently,  with the desire of foreign jobs, so many are enrolling with several distance learning programme in order to earn foreign degrees from foreign institutions  whose academic standard is considered equivalent or more in those foreign countries where employment opportunities abound.

As  unemployment continue to rise in their various countries,  people are looking for opportunities to travel to abroad with valid certificates so that they are not stranded overseas or to do the kind of job they ought not to do as they would not in their own country.  

 These and other factors constitute  the high demand of foreign degrees since most national universities  degrees are devalued abroad and cannot make good use of it over there.

Against this background, those Affiliates operating in those densely  populated  and  commercial busy   Center charge higher than those in other Centers with less commercial and industrial activities.

We at Delcan Distance Learning Consult do share part of our commissions with our prospective students on enrollment by reducing the fees to an affordable level in order to gain their patronage; consequently, our prices are one of the least among the Affiliates  while you earn the same degree through us  from the same university like other Affiliates Centers and you are free to contact the university at any time even after your enrolment through us.  

Contact us for Application Forms /Student Guide and other details and you will be glad you did!

You may contact us from any part of the world and we shall attend to your inquiry.

See the contact information at the right hand side of this web page.

The various Forms of University Accreditation

               

Some universities are government accredited while some are accredited by Royal Chartered and  by various processional Associations.

Accreditation  does not has specific  international   recommendable  standard unlike  manufactured products that must conform to internationally  acceptable standard which is the major function of the International Standard Organization (ISO) with  global Affiliations and Representatives. 

Consequently,   products are produced to be consumed locally  based on national standard grade, others are produced for exports based on the international acceptable standard.

  But education does not conform to any international acceptable standard; consequently, the  degree awarded to a graduate will be acceptable in any part of the world  provided the university is registered and accredited in the country of origin and  does not based on curriculum for global acceptability. Consequently, it is possible  to export educational programme to any part of the world  without conforming   to  international standard.

The accreditation of any university or  tertiary institution is based on the required  quality of educational standard   which is based on various factors determining its quality of standard and could be regional, provincial or State and at the national level  which is dependent on  the legislation of the country concern.

Consequently, accreditation policies vary from the  regional, state and national level dependent on the laws of the country regarding the educational sector in different parts of the world.  The accreditation undergo  timely  review  which may take place in every two  to three or more years with the payment of the appropriate  fees required to be paid by the institution during the evaluation process. . Indeed a significant timely   amount should  be   paid to the government  in order to main the status of the accreditation. 

More Significantly, accreditation   approval is subject to   withdrawal if the institution cannot afford to pay the  required  timely fees  and to uphold unto the approved standard. . Consequently, several institutions avoid government accreditation  and rather  operate independently if the law of the country permits.

                                     

                         The  Royal Chartered

Some gained royal chartered accreditation   based on the constitution of the country. The  Royal Chartered is the sub-national government of a country headed by the King or Queen and granted Autonomy which also include  the educational sector of the kingdom with softer terms and  conditions as contained in the Royal Chartered Agreement signed  between the  king or the  Queen and the institution.

                                Professional Accreditation

Most universities become registered members of various professional associations that are involved in their field of expertise. Based on the fact that government all over the world  recognized such professional bodies who also make use of their expertise  including government accredited universities  regarding evaluation and assessment  of educational programme  and  other technical know. In that case, the  government does not need to know of the accreditation of the professionals  proving the consultancy services provided they are registered members of well  recognized professional bodies which automatically accredit  the professional organization or university.

Consequently, most universities becomes members of various professional bodies as an alternative to government accreditation

                                           Degree Validation 

Most private unaccredited universities can enter into validation agreement with a government accredited university. The later  automatically accredits  the degree issued by the former  and shall be recognized all over the world. The validation agreement will be reached based on curriculum compatibility  and in conformity with other factors.

Such validation agreement is acceptable in the U.K and as well as the Royal Chartered  accreditation   as it is applicable in other parts of the world.  

Evidently the Western Orthodox University and the European University gained Royal Chartered and well as entry into validation agreement with several Government accredited  universities in  Central American countries and as well as gained accreditation by various professional organizations across the globe.  

     

National and Foreign Universities Dichotomy

The dichotomy between national and foreign universities is quite similar to the locally made product   producers and the importers of foreign products as the demand of foreign made products become a very big threat to the local producers.

Consequently, the producers of the locally made products suffer lost of patronage in the local market as the foreign made product take the upper hand.

The  local producers may suffer great lost if the importation of those foreign made products are not put under control.

To the advantage of the government, the Importers of those foreign made products  pay Customs dues and bear other associate cost in the course  of importing those  products based on the government tariff. On the other hand the local producers  might have obtained loans from banks and other private sources in order to put the factory in progress  and including the  farm land produce  but losing patronage to the Importers, Wholesalers and Retailers of the foreign made or agricultural imported  products.

As the trend continues, these local producers would cry out to the notice of the government through their trade associations and Chamber of Commerce of the unfavorable development.

As this happens, the government will swing into  action and provide list of prohibited items that are very essential and gaining much peonage in the market which the local producers can equally produce in considerable  commercial quantity without scarcity and increase the tariff of other products considered more  essential so that their prices will be too high to the importers and the later would increase the price of the items in the local market through her trade channels of distribution and the consumers  will find it too high to buy.  The demand of the foreign products begin to drop as not every buyer can afford at high price.   

This how the government all over the world regulate the dichotomy issue involving foreign made product and the locally produced ones.

Based on this development, the local universities operatives face the same problem regarding the influx of foreign satellite campuses and affiliations. The only difference is that the government cannot imposed stringed    rules on the foreign university satellite campuses based on UNESCO rules provided the foreign institution had been registered by the government in the country of origin.

However, the dichotomy issue would arise between the foreign universities  operatives and the local universities operative; whereby the former  poised a very big threat to the later in terms of patronage.

 

Among the local universities, the privates sector suffer more than the government institution. The later backed up by subsided school fees stand the change to  compete favorably with the foreign institutions’ Affiliate and Satellite Campuses unlike those of the private sector which school fees are higher than those of the government  instituters based on the fact that they pay dues to the government  takes responsibility of  Lecturer’s wages including the none academic staff and other administrative cost quite unlike the government institutions who enjoy the budgetary allocation from the government source in order to cover administrative cost in addition to the subsidized school fees. So the private institutions is not their match.  

While the private sector struggle to survive in the midst of the government sponsored institutions, the foreign institutors being patronized by prospective students double their plight of less patronage while paying their dues to the government. Consequently, the private operatives would frown at the foreign operatives recognize as their stronger rival whose school fees may be less than those of the private institutions or may be equal based on the prevailing market rare.  As this trend continues, the later would raise alarm regarding the influx of the foreign universities operatives through their respective   associations in order to reduce the number of those foreign operatives in the country concern.

Based on this development, the educational authority in the country would go into thorough scrutiny of those foreign operatives in order to  reduce their number.  During the exercise,  they would carry out their investigation as to determine which of them is approved or legalized in the country of origin based on UNESCO rules; will take into consideration of the  legitimacy of the Degree Awarding institutions through the satellite campuses whether directly from the university  or fake.

Most of those investigations will be carried out through their respective embassies of the foreign institutions.  At the end, the government will shortlist names of those foreign institutions and their operatives that are not allowed to award degrees.

This will go a long way to reduce the number of those foreign operative  and increase the patronage of the private institutions.  

         

   

The Advanced Methodology In Distance Learning Programme

In the near feature,  due to the advancement of computer technology, the campus based traditional university method will soon phase out . Based on the current trend, more university are  going online and  subsequently, prospective students can enroll online and stay at home to obtain their degrees. Consequently, the rush to the traditional campus based university will be  reduced drastically.

The new generation of universities no longer make use of the traditional campus based university system rather operating completely online.  The only infrastructure they would require is the administrative office  where the basic routine work could be carried out offline involving the use of computers and maintenance. 

 The new generation of online universities do take advantage of the  online system based on the fact that it  drastically reduce operational cost  compare to the traditional campus based system which stems from the following factors: 

The basic infrastructure has to be put  in place which  include procurement of large piece of land to develop in order to  accommodate all faculties, staff and  students quarters, payment of lectures and none academic staff based on government  salary scale level and in conformity with national labour laws and several  other factors. 

But with the introduction of the online system, there is no need to procure any of those facilities and the associated requirement. No need to follow government salary payment scale and national labour law.  Lecturers are employed in different parts of the world as adhock staff or as freelancers providing lectures to students online in different disciples in the comfort of their homes, while those at the administrative block monitors the activity of the entire operations in different parts of  the world

Computer Inefficiency Setback

Due to the advanced technology applicable in online distance learning prgramme,  the government  in most countries restrict traditional campus based university from going online but only approve very few universities  that can provide the require advanced technology based on the fact that is not a matter of sending and receiving emails in the distribution of lecture materials but entails a whole lot of highly skilled computer endearment n order to function effectively.

 Several online dissemination  of lecture materials are applicable through the use of computer software and their effective applications by the students. Production and procurement of both the hardware and software of high quality and maintenance  cost   will become a very big challenge  to both students and institution itself.

Consequently, the government put all of these factors  into consideration before approving a university to go online. However, the advanced methodology to be applied is solely dependent on the course involved while on some courses sending and receiving emails to download lecture material is all that is required. Consequently, most institutions are very selective on the type of courses they could handle online.

Distance Factor

Students take advantage of both online and offline method of learning in the distance learning programme based on the fact that as the phrase “Distance Learning” applies, has already bridged the gap between the university and the students receiving lectures in any part of the world of which distance is no longer a barrier. On this development, the traditional university campus based system is already substituted though the university’s affiliate centers using local institutions that already had the basic facilities on ground most primarily the qualified lecturers, conducive lecture rooms and high quality lecture material provided based on thorough research work in accordance with the course outline. 

On the other hand, students stay comfortably in their homes and receiving lectures through the computer with fast internet connections. So  no more making comfortable but risky journey  flying on board plane  to abroad to attend university programme in order to earn a degree and no  more expenditure involving transport cost  to attend lectures at the campus based traditional university, staying away from friends and relations, lodging in the university premises, resigning from currently job if management refuses approval to grant study leave  and other inconveniences and related costs are curtailed  in the distance learning programme.