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) into 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 into 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.
