Accreditation for art school still pending
"The accreditation is in process, the CFAD's college was granted provisional accreditation until end of this year."
THE Durban based Centre for Fine Art Animation and Design (CFAD) says its move to continue and accept students for the 2018 academic year is well within the ambit of the law. The institution was officially de-registered on 20 November 2016 for failing to submit its annual report for 2015 and the ruling was gazetted a month later. According to the institution, new registration papers have been submitted to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the registration will be complete after an impending site visit by the Council for Higher Education (CHE).
“As we communicated to parents and students, our CHE accreditation is in the process of being reinstated. In a meeting with the CHE last year, we were told in no uncertain terms that the “CFAD is a diamond in the rough” and we would not be allowed to close our Centre’s college. This is primarily because there is no other college, besides ours, that offers the integrated multimedia arts curriculum in the entire country. While the accreditation is in process, the CFAD’s college was granted provisional accreditation until 31 December 2018. This means that our college can indeed continue to operate and empower students,” said CFAD’s spokesperson Shabnam Palesa Mohamed.
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Meanwhile, the Department of Higher Education said the Registrar of Private Higher Institutions (PHEIs) had extended the phase-out period to 31 December 2018. This means that the college may only phase out pipe-line students. It may not enrol new students on the programme.
“The registration of Centre for Fine Art Animation and Design CFAD remains cancelled as their appeal was dismissed and the only approved site it may operate from is in Durban. The institution has lodged a new application for registration and the outcome on that application is still pending,” said the department’ spokesperson Madikwe Mabotha.
Mohamed urged parents or former students to feel free to contact them so they could affirm the updates above and reassure them of their determined commitment to arts and education.
“It appears as if the parent, or former student’s parent, who contacted you is either misinformed or misunderstands the situation. Please ask them to feel free to meet with us so we can affirm the updates above and reassure them of our determined commitment to arts and education. We cannot in good conscience allow miscommunication or misrepresentation, whether unintended or intentional, to sabotage the future of students both current and future,” she said.
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