Lecturer faces legal action

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Friday June 25, 2010 00:00

He also claimed that there were serious issues of quality assurance.

Responding to the allegations, the institution's public relations manager, Mercy Bonnie Thebe said management has not issued any staff retrenchment letters but would not renew the contracts that expire on July 31. 'As an institution we feel greatly aggrieved by the position taken by Mkali owing to the fact that the statement he issued has tarnished the image of the institution and has negative impact on the morale of our staff, current and prospective students, alumni, the industry partners as well as the public,' Thebe said.

She stated further that it was unfortunate that a union representative who, should have been very conscious of the rules governing union/management relationship would have the audacity to address national media on the alleged staff issues, without the consent of the institution as required by the joint agreement between the two parties.

 'As an institution we would like to reiterate and maintain our earlier position that it is improper, premature and unprofessional for us to discuss any decisions taken regarding the declining number of government sponsored students as Limkokwing management is still in consultation with all relevant stakeholders, especially the union,' she said.

On the alleged Wikipedia and Internet adopted programme, Thebe stated that the programmes offered at Limkokwing are developed by Limkokwing University in Malaysia and are not adopted from Wikipedia or the Internet. 'I would like to highlight that due to the nature of the programmes offered in Limkokwing, together with our philosophy, we strive to ensure that our offerings are always technologically based. We subscribe to online resources like EBSCO and EMERALD so that our staff and students can benefit from them in terms of research as well as other alternative online resources,' she said adding that Wikipedia is one source, amongst many used for the provision of information. 'Our staff and students are encouraged to use multiple reliable sources of information as additional reading materials for their research purposes.

'In instances where we find that there are inappropriate acts of plagiarism from both staff and students, appropriate action is always taken, as we have done in the past,' she said explaining further that programmes offered at Limkokwing go through appropriate assessment, accreditation by the Tertiary Education Council (TEC) which is the regulatory authority.

'So in the three years that we have been operating, if we were offering programmes that did not meet TEC requirements, appropriate action would have long been taken. Therefore any doubts relating to the standard and credibility of our programmes should be referred to TEC,' Thebe said.

She added that it was disappointing for a principal lecturer and a union member to mislead 'the whole nation and create unnecessary panic and cause immerse damage to the reputation of the institution and those associated with it.The institution is seeking legal advice on these false allegations raised against it,' she said.

When reached for a comment, the Trainers and Allied Workers Union (TAWU)'s secretary general Edward Tswaipe said that the union owned up to Mkali's statement on television even though he did not contextualise it like they wanted. 'Issues of quality assurance have always been there and the management and staff are aware of those. The union cannot keep quiet when they are such issues like when the examinations get leaked.

We are worried about the content of the programs designed in Malaysia and TEC should have picked on that during the accreditation,' Tswaipe said. The TEC Executive Secretary Patrick Molutsi was not available for comment yesterday.