By G Vinod
PETALING JAYA: Students of the International University College of Technology Twintech (IUCTT) at Bandar Sri Damansara taking the Bachelor of Optometry degree course are in a bind.
The Malaysian Optical Council, which comes under the health ministry, informed the university college that it is withdrawing its accreditation for the course in a letter dated June 30.
Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, who brought the issue to light at a press conference today at his service centre, said he will seek an appointment with ministry officials soon to sort out the matter which affects a total of 156 students, most of whom are locals.
“What we want is for the university to find a solution to the students' woes. If they are unable to resolve the issue, I hope the students will get a refund of their fees.
“We also hope they can make arrangements for these students to be transferred to an accredited college quickly. The most important thing is to ensure the students' education is not affected,” said Pua.
No longer a twinning programme
Mike (not his real name), a second-year optometry student at IUCTT, who was at the press conference, highlighted another issue related to their predicament.
He claimed that the Glasgow Caledonian University, which was to validate the programme, had withdrawn its MoU with IUCTT and that the students were kept in the dark about it.
“The withdrawal letter by Glasgow was sent on Aug 24 last year and a copy of it was sent to the health ministry and the Malaysian Optical Council.
“Our course lecturers were also resigning from IUCTT and when we did a check, we became aware of all these developments,” said Mike.
“Now with our course not being recognised by the ministry, how are we to get a job once we graduate? Many of my seniors are now working in retail optometary shops for a livelihood.
Another student, Anne (not her real name), claimed that the university kept charging them a twinning fee despite Glasgow's withdrawal from the pact.
“The pre-Glasgow fee was RM8,500 but after the MoU was signed, the fee was raised to RM10,500. The varsity is still charging us RM10,500 for the new semester despite Glasgow's departure” said Anne, also a second-year student.
The students claimed that they spent months trying to sort out the matter with their college and the health ministry but met with little success.
“Now, the college is pressuring us to register for the new semester even though this issue is yet to be resolved,” said Anne.
It was withheld, says official
When contacted, an official from IUCTT who wished to remain anonymous said the accreditation was not actually withdrawn, but withheld instead due to the mass resignation of lecturers.
“The joint technical group comprising the Malaysia Qualifications Agency and the Malaysian Optical Council then advised the Ministry of Higher Education to withhold accreditation as we were short of lecturers,” the official said.
He said the minimum criteria to get accredited is to have a ratio of one lecturer to 15 students. Also, the percentage of full-time lecturers should be at 60% and part-time lecturers at 40%.
“We will be getting four lecturers from India and one from Nigeria by September. Once they arrive, hopefully we will get back our accreditation.”
He assured that the affected students from the optometry programme will definitely get an accredited certificate when they graduate.
On the fee hike, the official said the increase had nothing to do with Glasgow Caledonian University and it was part of a fee restructuring exercise.
“The programme is 100% ours. Glasgow was just there to validate the programme and to give awards to students,” the official clarified.
