Parliament Praises Importance and Value of HEA
The Chairperson of the Committee on Health, Community Development and Social Services, Honourable Dr. Christopher Kalila, MP., has extoled the importance of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in quality assurance of higher education in Zambia, urging the Authority to give the nation its best.
The Lukulu East Member of Parliament was the Joint-Chairperson of the Education Committee when the Higher Education Act, 2013, the Law that establishes the HEA, was passed. He stated that he was very delighted when HEA was established as for the first time, Zambia was going to have a regulator to be the referee in the higher education subsector.
“Coming from an environment where at that time only public institutions were allowed, and moving into a liberalised field where we were going to have so many institutions, HEA was and still remains an extremely important referee in the higher education sector,” Dr. Kalila said.
However, Dr. Kalila cautioned that being a keen observer and follower of HEA, the Chairperson remained bemused by the sheer number of private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) that call themselves universities.
“Almost every institution wants to register as a university. Does it mean that institutions can only offer higher education if they are universities?” Dr. Kalila questioned, continuing, “Please keep a close tab on institutions registering to ensure that all of the institutions on your books meet the standards so that those that can offer higher education at polytechnic or college level (can offer it at that level) so that not every institution is at university level.”
The Chairperson remarked that if every institution was a university, it would call into question the quality of the graduates that these institutions were producing.
Dr. Kalila said this to HEA when the Authority appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Community Development and Social Services to present on the National Health Research and Training Institute Bill, 2024, on 12th November, 2024.
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