Being at such a distance does give one a more objective view, even when your own employer is being criticised publicly, although the more cynical amongst you may end up stating "Well, he would say that anyway"!
Therefore, the question that has been going through my mind is whether BBC Wales, in its quest to get a journalistic "scoop", has made an error of judgment with regard to its Week In Week Out programme on the University of Wales and its links with Fazley College? In particular, I have had a number of comments about a story that is emerging from Malaysia, where Fazley College is based.
According to various newspapers including the Malaysian National News Agency and the Malaysian Star, there is a very different view of the issue of the ownership of the college, the main issue that has been highlighted by the BBC and by the Minister of Education in subsequent stories.
Indeed, whilst the BBC seems to have given the impression that it is a prerequisite for someone to have academic qualifications to run an educational establishment, the Higher Education Minister in Malaysia, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, has said that academic credentials are not a prerequisite for anyone to own colleges in Malaysia.
To quote the Minister “such credentials were only necessary for members of the academic staff. In Malaysia, anyone can apply to start a college as long as the academic staff are qualified and meet the requirements set by the ministry”.
What is the potential fallout from this?
As one commentator noted last night “the education ministers of those countries might have grounds to feel insulted and belittled by high-handed criticisms from ministers in the UK who condescendingly and ignorantly graft their own standards and cultural mores upon them, with scant regard for cultural differences”.
That may be a bit strong but the point is well made (although I would substitute "journalists" for "ministers in the UK").
More relevantly, there has been little reference in BBC reports to the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), the organisation that makes the final judgment call on the quality of the course offered by Fazley College.
Ironically, the most recent audit of overseas provision between the University of Wales and Fazley International College was reported in March 2010 and can be found here. Please read this for yourselves and form your own judgment of the QAA’s review of the quality of the course provision at Fazley College.
Perhaps the problem now is that BBC Wales has committed the ultimate journalistic sin and is in danger of becoming the story itself. Indeed, some have begun to question why the programme did not seek advice over the critical issue of ownership within the Higher Education system in Malaysia and chose to underemphasize the positive outcome of the QAA report into Fazley College?
Given the fact that ownership is not an issue within Malaysian Higher Education and the QAA has already undertaken a detailed report into Fazley College with no major issues raised, then, as another commentator notes, how could the University of Wales have “hurt the reputation of Wales” and brought “the name of Wales into ridicule” as suggested by the Minister?
The real question is why the BBC has gone out if its way to turn what was a relatively weak piece of journalism into a direct attack on the University of Wales? I know from emails received over the last couple of days that some are beginning to question the motives behind this attack and, more relevantly, why they have now dragged the Minister of Education into making comments which, at best, were unwise in the context of the validation process within overseas institutions?
However, what seems to have been forgotten by everyone reporting on this issue is that the judgment on the quality of the courses validated by the University of Wales is the remit of the QAA, not the BBC nor the Welsh Assembly Government. More importantly, the QAA has just completed its periodic institutional review of the entire University of Wales (including its validated provision), and the publication of that outcome cannot come quickly enough.
In Wales, there is an overriding sense of chwarae teg (fair play) in public life and one can only hope that it remains one of the real strengths of the society in which we live in.
Certainly, if I were the Minister, I would be asking the QAA for an advanced copy of this report as soon as possible. This would ensure that any further comments on the quality of courses at the University of Wales are based on the considered and detailed judgment of the organisation responsible for academic standards across UK higher education and not the subjective reporting of a thirty minute programme.
