2012-07-27
Dual Submission of Programmes for Accreditation to South African Nursing Council (SANC) and Council on Higher Education (CHE)1. PURPOSE
2. BACKGROUND The South African Nursing Council as a statutory body and ETQA has responsibility of ensuring compliance by nursing education institutions with the Nursing Act No. 33 of 2005 and other relevant legislation in provisioning of nursing education and training. The Nursing Act, 2005 (Act No. 33 of 2005), chapter 2, section 42, sub-sections (1), (2), (3) and (4) states that:
The Higher Education Act of 1997 assigns responsibility for quality assurance in higher education in South Africa to the Council on Higher Education (CHE). This responsibility is discharged through its permanent sub-committee, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC). The mandate of the HEQC includes quality promotion, institutional audit and programme accreditation. The HEQC’s criteria for programme accreditation should be used as the basis for an institution’s self-evaluation of the programme(s) submitted for accreditation, along with additional benchmarks which the institution might set for itself. The HEQC will use the criteria, the self-evaluation report and supporting evidence provided by the institution, in the evaluation of applications for programme accreditation (new programmes) or reaccreditation (existing programmes). 3. SCOPE AND PRIMARY FOCUS OF SOUTH AFRICAN NURSING COUNCIL All providers/applicant provider organizations that fall within the scope of the SANC and which offer education and training programmes which culminate in specified qualifications or who manage the assessment thereof, or both, must be accredited by the South African Nursing Council, as stipulated in the Nursing Act, 2005 (Act No. 33 of 2005), section 42, in order to offer such education and training and assessment. In this regard, the SANC will only:
4. GENERAL CRITERIA FOR ACCREDITATION OF PROGRAMME The conformance criteria that are set by SANC are as follows:
HEQC has set the following criteria:
5. ACCREDITATION PROCESS All prospective providers will be treated as new applicants as these will be new qualifications. Approach to accreditation is based on:
6. OUTCOMES OF ACCREDITATION The review panel first evaluates the programme(s) against each individual criterion as set out in the Criteria for Programme Accreditation. The following categories are used to classify the results in each instance:
7. PERIOD OF ACCREDITATION SANC: New programmes will be accredited as follows:
HEQC: New programmes will be accredited as follows:
8. HANDLING OF AN APPLICATION THAT DOES NOT MEET ACCREDITATION REQUIREMENTS Office of the Council sends a letter giving prospective provider another three (3) months to rectify outstanding requirements Prospective provider may apply for an extension of up to an additional three (3) months 9. HANDLING OF RE-SUBMISSION OF AN APPLICATION Office of the Council reviews re-submission and decides on the following:
10. APPEALS Appeals are dealt with in line with the Appeals Policy and Procedure. An applicant provider or organisation may access the SANC Appeals Policy and Procedure(1) should the organisation be dissatisfied with any of the following during the accreditation process:
NB: The policy stipulates time frames for appeals. If no appeal is forthcoming within the specified period, the results will be accepted as final and binding. 11. PROVIDER MONITORING AND AUDITS Providers will receive a monitoring visit in the first year after accreditation and will be audited at least once per accreditation period. Additional monitoring and auditing will take place at the discretion of SANC. Such monitoring and auditing can take place without prior notice. Any queries regarding above-mentioned circular must be directed to:
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South African Nursing Council (Under the provisions of the Nursing Act, 2005)
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