Staff Audit of the Technical Universities conducted by the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) has exposed anomalies in the teaching and administrative procedures in the institutions.
The audit was carried out with the objective of facilitating the effective migration of staff of the universities onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
The report, dated December 21 2018 revealed for instance, that most lecturers especially those in the schools of Business, have been teaching without the relevant background, with some holding Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) degrees acquired online, which is against the regulations of NCTE.
Some lecturers have either Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from the Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica or doctorate in Finance from the Swiss Management Centre (SMC) University and the University of Central Nicaragua.
These are non-research doctorates and are not acceptable for teaching.
Some lecturers also have PHDs awarded by the University of Central Nicargagua on the basis of the DBA awarded by the SMC.
The report indicated some lecturers were teaching with mismatched first, second and terminal degrees, referred to as skirt and blouse, a practice the NCTE finds unacceptable.
It made it clear that lecturers with master’s degrees and PHDs acquired online should not be recongnised and that affected lecturers should go back to school to acquire the relevant degrees before they would be migrated onto the single spine.
