The University of Cape Town (UCT)’s law faculty is breathing a sigh of relief following the decision by the Council for Higher Education not to withdraw its LLB accreditation.
Late in 2017, the council, which is responsible for quality assurance in the higher education sector, downgraded UCT’s LLB programme. The programme had been criticised for failing to enhance throughput and graduation rates, and for its failure to address race and gender equity issues.
The council had given UCT six months to deal with the issues raised, failing which its LLB accreditation would be downgraded from "notice of withdrawal of accreditation" to "confirmation of withdrawal of accreditation".
Under current rules, only programmes accredited by the council’s Higher Education Quality Committee can be offered by a higher education institution.
In a letter to Prof Lis Lang, UCT’s deputy vice-chancellor for teaching and learning, the council said it had reviewed the university’s progress report together with other relevant documentation to determine the progress made in addressing its concerns.
"Based on the evidence provided, the [Higher Education Quality Committee] revised its accreditation decision to full accreditation for the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme offered at the University of Cape Town," the letter read.
UCT said it had put "significant thought, careful planning and great energy" into the improvement plan submitted to the council in accordance with the requirements that are part of the national LLB accreditation process.
It said that drafting the plan provided the opportunity to focus on the aspects stipulated by the council, including faculty plans for reviewing the curriculum in relation to the purpose of the LLB degree and graduate attributes, improving course co-ordination and the rate at which students progress through the degree, and the extent to which the faculty incorporates the notion of transformative constitutionalism in course content.
"We will be keeping a close eye on our improvement plan and on our progress — to maintain and drive forward our excellence in legal education," said Prof Hugh Corder, the acting dean of the UCT Faculty of Law.
"We are completely committed to ensuring that the faculty continues to deserve the high esteem in which its qualifications, especially the LLB degree, are held nationally and internationally," said Corder.
The council recently announced that it had withdrawn Walter Sisulu University’s accreditation to offer LLB degrees in its law faculty, effective from January 2019. The council assessed 21 universities and found that Walter Sisulu’s LLB programme had underqualified lecturers and its lecture halls were not suitable for use, among other concerns.
Walter Sisulu said at the time it would make an effort to submit a new programme for accreditation before the end of 2018.
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