Status (or None) Of South African Diplomas And Degrees

I have heard via the grapevine that certain specific South African earned degrees and diplomas are not accepted nor recognized outside South African borders and especially in countries such as the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. By this I mean qualifications from institutions accredited by our legal system in education.

I am in the process of trying to gather concrete facts and will post my findings here once done.

Sure is going to make interesting reading, because these degrees and diplomas don't only come from "alternative but accredited" South African institutions, but they come from South African universities.

 

Degrees from properly recognized SA unis are considered comparable to accredited degrees from U.S. schools. Of course, there is variability in terms of reputation, just like in the U.S. and everywhere else.

 

This would be interesting because some universities in Australia have partnership deals with SA Universities. It might be case of the professonal bodies protecting their turf. These, of course, sit outside the university environment. The Australian university might recognise the degree but the professional body doesn't

This is common in the area of medicine. Law has also become an area of difficulty requiring additional coursework by lawyers from other jurisdictions.

 

The professional body remark is interesting.

In UK for example if one wants to be registered as Professional Engineer with EC UK the education requirement is Accredited degree or Washington accord
signor.
Degree in engineering or technology from fully recognized university is not the same they call it unaccredited because in their view accredited means by one of the ECUK licensed members.

In USA in some areas such as MBA I think name recognition has more to do.
If the MBA from school overseas then if its not one of the well known school it may be looked inferior.
US or Canadian, UK MBA seems to be more accepted then SA or Russian etc.

Wile Engineering degrees from Russia for example are well accepted in USA.

There is a competition for good associate professor, adjunct faculty jobs so foreign SA degrees may have more challenge competing with local domestic Doctorate graduates.

 

Hi Len - I'm thinking that you've been listening to the wrong grapes. Let us know what you discover. Please try to do better than "the grapevine" when citing sources.

 

That was pretty cryptic.

Who told you this? Were they talking about particular degree titles or diplomas from particular institutions, or maybe something else? Who in the US, UK etc. isn't recognizing these things? Isn't recognizing them as being what, exactly? For what purpose? (Employment? Graduate admissions? Professional licensing?)

 

Right now I'm sitting through the leftovers of hurricane "whatever" that has made it's way up the east coast from Florida. It's a pretty good rainstorm with some increasing winds but nothing to worry about as I locked down all the critters a couple of hours ago. No doubt there will be some tree branches to pick up in the morning. The storm has given me some free time.

http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=1161419601

and then this

http://www.aisj-jhb.com/pages/sitepage.cfm?page=125180

Maybe I latched onto the wrong Len van der Walt from South Africa. It could happen.

 

Glad you are ok.

Abner

 

Everyone goes running out to buy bread and milk that they really don't need because they're paying too much attention to the TV weather girls who are paid to hype any conceivable crisis as it promotes advertising sales and I know that I sound just so cynical as I write this but the fact is that weather has become "disaster news" and they hype it up because it means dollars in somebody's pocket. (nice run on sentence) However, to me it's just a rainstorm big enough to put down the shutters in the barn. Tomorrow the sun will come up and as soon as I'm finished picking up those downed branches I'll be watching the Pats beat the Chiefs. Thanks for the thought.

 

At any of the several regionally accredited colleges and universities for which I have worked, a degree from UNISA or any of the other legitimate South African universities would be both recognized and accepted.

 

California State University Dominguez Hills accepted a student holding a South African BSc into their MSQA program even though it was a three year degree (she had to convince the university that a SA 3-year degree was equal to a 4-year US degree which she did).

 

Check this out you may feel better about your country education system.

http://www.studysa.co.za/contentpage.aspx?pageid=4150

 

That's a great article. Thanks for the link.