Wednesday, November 17, 2010

SELECTIVE REPORTING?

Whilst some in Wales continue to ask questions over the Week In Week Out programme on the University of Wales, it has been reported that the Malaysian authorities have now conducted their investigation into Fazley College and are satisfied about the quality of teaching.

According to the Malaysian Star on Friday 12th November,

"Ministry deputy director-general (private higher education institutions) Datin Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir confirmed that operations would continue at Fazley Inter national College, which had around 380 students. Dr Siti Hamisah said that a ministry taskforce investigated the college on Wednesday and found no irregularities. She added that visits by Britain’s Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education and the Malaysian Qualifications Agency were satisfactory".

So it would seem, from this report, that the Malaysian authorities are satisfied with the quality of the courses being run within their own country at Fazley College.

However, if this information is correct, did the Welsh Minister for Education know about this status when he said yesterday that "a serious systemic failure in both the validation processes and quality control has occurred”? 

Given the high priority that he is giving this story, have any of his civil servants been in regular contact with the Malaysian authorities over their investigation into Fazley?

More relevantly, and in the interest of impartial reporting, why didn't the BBC report the results of this investigation by the Malaysian authorities five days ago?