COMMENT: Beware of degree mills abroad

In some cases, parents and guardians consider it a statement when sending their children or charges abroad for further education.

With fees and living costs typically higher in foreign lands than locally, they think doing so asserts that they are well-to-do, setting themselves and their children apart from the rest.

Just the point that one or one’s kid is at a foreign university or college, never mind the quality of education the institution delivers, is enough.

They think, most wrongly, that local universities and colleges offer poor quality education and that they are for the poor.

There is also a category of parents or guardians who enrol their children or charges at foreign institutions of higher learning, not out of choice, but because they are resident there.

There is yet another group that does so out of genuine ignorance. What they just want is that degree or diploma. They are won over by attractive advertising or lower fees, especially with respect to institutions offering online courses.

However, we cited Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (Zimche), Professor Kuzvinetsa Dzvimbo as saying yesterday that some end up at degree and diploma mills, returning home with scraps of paper only fit for the dustbin.

Yet, our country has 21 universities as well as multiple polytechnics and colleges, that offer degrees, higher national diplomas, diplomas and certificates of such quality that their holders get big jobs abroad very easily as they do locally.

“Now, one of the important things is that before parents send their children abroad, they should come and check with us because we want to tell them and make sure that the university that they are going to is actually recognised in its own country,” said Prof Dzvimbo.

“If it’s not recognised, your son or your daughter will not be able to work in this country. …It’s a traumatic exercise for both the child and the parent as they spend a lot of money. We have had people who come back to us and say, ‘I didn’t know this particular institution was not recognised. The institution we went to is not even recognised in its own country. So, you cannot have credit for that particular degree programme.”

We feel for those who find themselves at foreign degree mills due to circumstances — the time and money wasted and the trauma around it.

It is important that Zimche has the awareness campaign that Prof Dzvimbo said is ongoing and his plea for our people to verify with his office the standing of foreign educational institutions at which they intend to learn.

We suggest that his office intensifies the campaign and regularly name institutions whose papers they do not recognise.

Having noted the foregoing, we have to state that there are multiple foreign institutions of higher and tertiary education, which have distinguished themselves over the years. We commend them for skilling our people and encourage them to continue doing so.