Bandar Seri Begawan - All higher education courses abroad promoted in Brunei must be accredited through the Brunei Darussalam National Accreditation Council (BDNAC), government and private education facilitators were told yesterday.

At a Ministry of Education (MoE) briefing held especially to explain the rules involved in promoting courses to study abroad, agencies that promote the courses in Brunei must obtain endorsement letters from the Committee for Regulating Education Exhibition (CREE) and the Department of Schools three months before hosting an education exhibition.

BDNAC Senior Education officer Adinin Md Salleh told The Brunei Times that an application needed to be filed three months before the exhibition so that CREE would have sufficient time to process the application.

"We will look into the kind of courses they will be offering and whether they (the courses) will be recognised by BDNAC," he said.

The verification of the courses being promoted aims to safeguard the public from any scams or other forms of deception, he explained.

Promoting an educational course abroad without first having the course verified by BDNAC can carry a penalty of being de-registered from the MoE list of approved organisers and/or withdrawal of the accreditation status accorded by BDNAC to the institutions concerned.

He added that any overseas education representative who intends to come to Brunei and offer courses for students to study abroad must be affiliated with a licensed local agency to promote the course.

"In the event that an overseas representative disappears, then the local partner will be held accountable. This is why the committee CREE was set up under BDNAC, because we want to protect our students," he said, adding that in the past one student fell victim to such a scam.

Under CREE's regulations, any foreign embassies looking to organise an education exhibition on behalf of their respective country were also advised to seek guidelines and prior approval from CREE.

Bruneians who study abroad and return as graduates must have their certificates endorsed by BDNAC before they can work for the government, Adinin said.

"Apart from the government sector, some private firms have even come to BDNAC asking for the student's certificates to be endorsed to make sure they were not fake," he said.

MoE Director General of Education Dk Hjh Mastoli PSI Pg Hj Ismail in her speech to the gathering said, "I suggest that education providers be more careful in providing information to students or the public. as not only does going abroad cost a lot of money, but also affects the students' future?'

She stressed that it was important that rules and regulations be followed so that any "unwanted issues" on accreditation of institutions and universities would be avoided.

Dk Hjh Mastoli also urged foreign education institutions or their representatives to seek approval from the Department of Schools before conducting visits to schools or colleges.

About 50 teachers, local education agencies and invited guests from embassies attended the briefing yesterday, held at the Ministry of Education Adinin advised students and in-service officers with any queries on the issue to directly approach CREE's Secretariat at Room 211. Block B, Second Floor at the Ministry of Education.

Alternatively, they can call 2381133 ext 2209 or 2210, or send their queries by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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written by PitBull , November 19, 2009

I was being told "Your University was not accredited by us. So your degree is invalid." When I asked "Do you have the list of institutes accredited by MOE?" I got a simple reply "You can checked on-line through this website (NOT MOE AFFILIATED OR 'MADE' BY MOE.) What is the objective behind all this accreditation thing? Is it to balance the number of graduates overseas and locals? Just because one's university was not accredited does not mean that what you have learnt is totally invalid and worst of all, being degraded. I've been through all the hassles with this and I've been degraded to HND (I went overseas BEFORE this committee was established.) It was devastating. I'am wondering how MOE measures the validity of a degree programme overseas without sending its representatives, just by reading though its on-line brochures? Or going though the hierarchy of the top 10 univesities of each country? To be fair, how about those expats who worked in Brunei (Teachers, Medical Doctors, Engineers, Etc.) Do they have to pass through the accreditation process? If not or they are being exempted, then its a BIAS situation.

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